As adults we sometimes forget how to play, or maybe you never played as a child and so playing with your own children is a bit of a mystery. Alternatively, you may remember times when you played all day long and entered into worlds that were full of adventure and fun.

 

All types of play are important for a child’s development because through play children develop thinking skills, looking and listening skills, problem solving, muscle strength and coordination, and manipulation skills. As children enjoy playing, they also feel good about themselves and learn about their world. Pretend play, a unique type of play, helps to build social competence, narrative, language, self-regulation, creativity, and various thinking processes within the child. 

 

Some children, for whatever reason, find it difficult to understand and initiate pretend play by themselves or with others. Learn To Play Therapy is a child-centred approach where the therapist/worker/teacher plays beside, with, and responds to the child to enable a deeper enjoyment and pleasure in spontaneous self-initiated, intentional, pretend play. The aim is for the child to become autonomous in how they play, how they choose to play with others, and to transfer their pretend play ability across play environments and beyond.