For Therapists
Engaging with children and their families to facilitate the ability of children to play, as well as the ability of the parent to ‘read’ their child’s play and enjoy playing with their child, can be a very satisfying part of the work of a therapist. The therapist also needs to be able to play and to be playful when carrying out this type of therapy. This page provides information and products to assist therapists in their work with children and families.
Engaging Children in Play
Engaging with children in play to facilitate an increase in their ability demands several skills of the therapist. Children who find it difficult to play or cannot play usually do not understand play behaviour when they see it. Consequently, they are not interested in what the therapist is doing. The therapist needs to be able to play and be playful themselves because children will engage more easily if they perceive that the therapist is having fun. This means the therapist uses their voice, face, and body movement in a playful way when engaging with children in play. The therapist works very hard to get initial engagement. The therapist watches the child constantly and always responds to the child. Â
Working with children to build or increase the ability to play means giving power to the child – encouraging the child to make decisions about what will happen in the play and setting up the environment so the child feels safe to play. To begin with the therapist must know the developmental play level of the child and begin to engage with the child on this level. If the play activities are too advanced for the play level of the child, the child will not engage and may even start to feel stressed. You begin by engaging with the child on the play level they are on and then adding complexity to the play when the child is ready.
Assessing Play
Assessing a child’s play ability gives you lots of information about how a child engages with their world and how they understand their world. The ability of a child to self-initiate their own play is a key play ability. There are many children who find self-initiation of play very difficult. Assessment of a child’s play then, is about observing a child playing and understanding and interpreting this information within the child’s family, social and cultural systems.
There are many types of play and the assessments in this section are focussed on assessment of pretend play. Pretend play is a more mature form of play and its early development occurs from the second year of a child’s life to be a dominant form of play when a child reaches preschool age.
To be able to pretend in play, a child needs to be able to initiate a play idea and/or action and impose meaning onto objects and actions. Play is a complex ability to assess as children engage multiple skills as they are playing. Children’s play is unique to their environmental opportunities, social networks, and internal capabilities. A play assessment provides information on the play capabilities of a child and the underlying skills that a child already has in play. It provides information on a child’s strengths in play and areas that may need further assistance to support the child’s personal empowerment to understand play, and choose how they play, who they play with, what to play with and if they want to play at all. Play assessments provide information on the complexity of a child’s play strengths and, just as importantly, provides insight and appreciation for where to ‘meet’ the child in their play, presuming competence and promoting autonomy.
There are many play assessments available, however the following four play assessments have been developed by Emeritus Professor Karen Stagnitti as part of Learn To Play Therapy.
Our Assessment Tools
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Pretend Play Enjoyment Developmental Checklist (PPE-DC)
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Child-Initiated Pretend Play Assessment-2 (ChIPPA-2)​
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Indigenous Child-Initiated Pretend Play Assessment (I-ChIPPA)​
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Animated Movie Test (AMT)
This assessment is an informal observational assessment of a child’s ability to engage in pretend play. This assessment provides an observational guide for pretend play ability, self-esteem and self-regulation. It is suitable for children aged 12 months to 6 years and has information on self-esteem and self-regulation up to early adolescence. How children play gives information on how children understand their world and their place in it. The scoring includes symbols to show spontaneous ability, imitation, focussed attention and joining in the play.
For example reports using the PPE-DC, see our Resources Page.
The Child-Initiated Pretend Play Assessment-2 was released in 2020, it’s updates include a revised manual and scoring booklets. The kit materials remain the same.
This assessment is a norm-referenced standardised assessment of a child’s play. This assessment is for children aged 3 years to 7 years 11 months. This assessment takes 18 minutes for 3 year old children, and 30 minutes for 4 to 7 year 11 month old children. There are two sessions within the ChIPPA-2 which are: observation of conventional-imaginative play ability (9 minutes for 3 year olds and 15 minutes for 4 – 7.11 year olds) and observation of symbolic play ability (9 minutes for 3 year olds and 15 minutes for 4 – 7.11 year olds). In other words, the child is observed playing with toys and observed playing with unstructured play materials. The ChIPPA-2 can be scored as the child plays or it can be videoed and then scored by video. The items that are scored are: elaborateness of play, object substitution and ability to self-initiate play. There is also a clinical observations sheet which notes indicators of play.
The ChIPPA has been trialled in Canada, Japan, Singapore, Iran, Brazil, Australia, Switzerland, and the UK. There is now an Australian Indigenous version of the ChIPPA, called the I-ChIPPA.
For example reports using the ChIPPA-2, see our Resources Page.
This assessment is a culturally responsive version of the Child-Initiated Pretend Play Assessment for Australian Aboriginal children aged 4 to 7 years.
In Australia there are many First Nation countries and communities with Elders as custodians of knowledge and lore. In each community, what children play is influenced by their culture. The Indigenous Child-Initiated Pretend Play Assessment is based on the Child-Initiated Pretend Play Assessment, with the I-ChIPPA being developed through consultation with communities and Elders in North West Australia. In this manual, Karen Stagnitti and Alma Dender encourage users of the I-ChIPPA to defer to the Elders in their community in how this assessment should be administered and what animals should be included. The I-ChIPPA is designed so that the administration and materials are responsive to the child’s culture. We are also aware that the name of this assessment may need to be changed for use within some communities.
The I-ChIPPA can be used when there is a concern about a child’s play ability. The I-ChIPPA is for children aged 4 to 7 years 11 months and can be administered with pairs of children or with single children. For pairs of children, the I-ChIPPA also includes the Play Partner Scale, developed by Alma Dender. The Play Partner Scale takes into account a play partner when playing. Using the I-ChIPPA, a child’s ability to sequence play actions, use symbols in play and self-initiate play are observed. There are no norm scores in the I-ChIPPA as comparing one child to another is not culturally responsive in many communities. Rather, a description of a child’s play is made, based on observations of a child’s ability to sequence play actions, use symbols in play, self-initiate play, play with a partner, and other observations noted in the Clinical Observations form. The information gained from the I-ChIPPA can be used to inform significant adults in a child’s life on how to support a child to develop their play to more complex levels.
This assessment is for young people aged 8 to 15 years. In this assessment, the young person is instructed that they are the director, producer and actor in a movie. They have 15 minutes to set up the movie set and 15 minutes to act out the movie. Seven boxes of movie props, which are displayed on a table top, are offered to the 12-15 year olds. Four of the seven prop boxes are offered to the 8-11 year olds. The assessment is videoed with a focus on the young person’s hands and movie props. The young person is supplied with a copy of their movie. The items are scored using a Likert scale and items are scored from the video of the assessment. The items are: set up, ability to sequence events, generation of problems, initiation of ideas, emotional engagement in the movie, understanding of character roles, verbalisation and use of symbols.Â
Learn To Play Therapy
The aim of Learn To Play Therapy is to build the spontaneous pretend play ability of children. One of the great satisfactions of being a therapist is to give a child the ability to play by themselves and with others. In doing this, you become redundant as a therapist as children grow and generalise their play ability skills to home, neighbours, and early childhood settings.
Learn To Play Therapy focusses on pretend play, as this type of play is the most complex and mature form of play. Pretend play also impacts on language (particularly narrative language), social interaction, and emotional integration of the child’s experiences.Â
The play skills that are the focus of Learn To Play Therapy are:Â
1. Ability to spontaneously self-initiate play
2. Sequencing play actions logically
3. Using objects as something else (object substitution or symbols in play)
4. Engaging with a character (doll/teddy/puppet etc) outside of themselves
5. Integrating their play so a clear play script is evident
6. Role play
7. Socially interacting using play.
When engaging with a child in play, some key principles of Learn To Play Therapy are:
Start simple.
True Play is fun!
(if it is not fun, you won’t be as effective and the child will not be truly playing)
Regardless of What Play Skill You are Working on
Number of actions in a play sequence
Use of symbols in play
and if a doll/teddy is being part of the play.
(All these skills must also be understandable by the child and on the child’s play level)​
Challenge
(You introduce a higher level skill or new skill, or problem to the play script)​
Work towards the child taking over the play...
Always respond
Relevant Workshops and Courses
Workshops
Learn To Play Therapy -
Part 1
This 2-Day Workshop provides an introduction to Learn To Play Therapy which is a child-centred approach to working with children. The Part 1 workshop covers: understanding and recognising play ability and skills for play assessment, and how to meet the child in play and start Learn To Play Therapy with a child and their parent/carer. It would be valuable to therapists, social workers, psychologists, specialist school teachers and early intervention workers who work with families with children under 8 years who have concerns about their child’s abilities.
The Pretend Play Enjoyment Developmental Checklist (PPE-DC) starter package is included in the cost of this workshop with free shipping, and will be posted out to registrants before the workshop.
Learn To Play Therapy -
Part 2
This Workshop is suitable for those who have completed Learn To Play Therapy – Part 1 (2 Day Workshop).
This 3-Day Workshop explains and provides examples on the therapeutic use of self in Learn To Play Therapy to engage children, provide a sense of safety in sessions, and co-regulate with a child. Techniques are consolidated, with further techniques introduced and applied to cases where children’s needs are more complex. Time is allowed for participants to consolidate their understanding by working through more complex case studies, video analysis and discussion. This workshop would be valuable to therapists, social workers, psychologists, specialist school teachers and early intervention workers who work with families and their children under 8 years of age who have concerns about their child’s abilities.
The ‘Imagine Create Belong’ program for adolescents
with social difficulties
This workshop would be valuable for those working with tweens / teens who are neurodivergent or have social difficulties; including social workers, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, psychologists, teachers (including members of wellbeing teams), youth mental health nurses and play therapists.
Parent Learn To Play:
Train the Trainer
This workshop is suitable for those who have completed Learn To Play Therapy – Part 1 (2-Day Workshop). This practical workshop would be valuable for professionals, including therapists, social workers, early intervention workers, psychologists, who work with families who have children aged 12 months to 5 years who have a developmental delay.
The Parent Learn To Play: Facilitator Manual and Parent Handbook is included in the cost of the workshop and will be posted out with free shipping to all registrants prior to the workshop.
Online Courses
The Child-Initiated Pretend Play Assessment 2
The Child-Initiated Pretend Play Assessment-2 (ChIPPA-2) is designed for children from 3 years to 7 years 11 months who have difficulty playing or don’t know how to play. It is a norm referenced standardised assessment of the quality of a child’s ability to self-initiate their play. The child’s ability to sequence play actions, use symbols in play and self-initiate play are assessed across two sets of play materials – conventional imaginative play materials (for conventional-imaginative pretend play) and unstructured objects (for symbolic play).Â
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The course is structured as both self-paced online modules and online supervision sessions.
The Indigenous Child-Initiated Pretend Play Assessment
The Indigenous Child-Initiated Pretend Play Assessment (I-ChIPPA) is a culturally responsive version of the Child-Initiated Pretend Play Assessment-2 for Australian Aboriginal children aged 4 to 7 years 11 months. The I-ChIPPA can be used when there is a concern about a child’s play ability and can be administered with pairs of children or with single children. For pairs of children, the I-ChIPPA also includes the Play Partner Scale, developed by Alma Dender. There are no norm scores in the I-ChIPPA as comparing one child to another is not culturally responsive in many communities. The child’s ability to sequence play actions, use symbols in play, play with a partner and self-initiate play are assessed across two sets of play materials – conventional imaginative play materials (for conventional-imaginative pretend play) and unstructured objects (for symbolic play).
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The course is structured as both self-paced online modules and online supervision sessions.
