Why Play? Is playing, therapy...
As Occupational Therapist’s we support children with many areas of skill development
including self-care skills, social skills, sensory regulation skills and fine/gross motor skills. The
main daily occupation children need to participate and develop skills in, is play. Play is
critical to children’s development for all the above mentioned skills, yet it is not overly
recognised as a specific goal for ‘skill development’ or learning areas for children in therapy.
Prior to pretend play skills, children can interact and engage in play with gross motor and
fine motor play eg: skipping rope, Duplo blocks as well as sensory play. All these skills are
required for pretend play eg: to manipulate items, build houses for dolls or be able to
tolerate different textured items for play.
Pretend play skills are required to develop flexible thinking, creativity, social interaction,
attention and concentration, regulation, problem solving, turn taking and sharing. When
children play, it needs to be fun, interesting and enjoyed which can fulfil their overall
positive sense of self. Once a child is equipped with pretend play skills, they are then able to
be supported in the areas of narrative language, develop logical sequencing and expressive
language, all fundamental to social skills.
In therapy, play can help build rapport with a child. Up to 10 minutes of play can mean an
OT’s captures some of the child’s motor skill level, regulation skills and social skills.
Currently, technology is significantly reducing children’s play skills and capacity to explore
their imagination and pretend to be something or someone.
OT’s are skilled in play because it’s the main occupation for children, we can determine how
to challenge and support children to improve their play skills and lastly we recognise that
play can be developed in different areas, gross and fine motor play, sensory play,
imaginative play and pretend play.
Children need to play, we are drifting away from playing and moving to more ‘quick fixes’. If
children don’t have the detrimental skills for play, they are being set up with reduced
regulation and social skills and reduced ability to navigate simple play experiences.
Playing for longer than 5 minutes can be challenging, I encourage you to go home and play
for 5 minutes with a toy of your choice and see how many cognitive and imaginative skills
you need to be able to achieve this task!