Play based Therapy

Play based therapy is a highly effective approach with children. Kids naturally do most of their learning during play. They learn about themselves and the world around them, about relationships with others, and about the expression and management of feelings all through active exploration in playful activity. Play is fundamental to the learning and development of all children.

Play based therapy utilises enjoyable and child-directed activities to assist children with challenges. Therapists modify these child-directed activities in a fun way to provide appropriate challenges for the child, and to achieve therapeutic outcomes whilst the child engages in play.

Play is also highly meaningful and motivating. When an activity is meaningful, the child is likely to be more driven, work harder, and persist in a way that they would not in an activity that they find uninteresting or overly challenging. Activities that are meaningful bring about greater memory and learning of the experience than doing activities that are less meaningful. As Donald Hebb famously said, the neurons that “fire together, wire together”.

Play based therapy at MoveAbout Therapy Services incorporates families into therapy sessions where appropriate. Through including families in play-based therapy sessions, family members have the opportunity to enjoy time together whilst achieving therapeutic outcomes. These sessions also provide an opportunity to model activities that can then be taken home to extend the activities and strategies from therapy sessions into everyday life.