How To Tame Your Child’s Tantrums With The Power of Theraplay
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It’s full steam ahead in our Eight Ways To Help Your Child With Emotional Regulation Series.
This week we are looking at a playful approach to managing meltdowns. Welcome to the power of theraplay.
Playing with your child can be fun, but did you also know it can be therapeutic?
Play is a child’s natural language. Before they can form words, children observe and interact with the world around them. As parents and caregivers, we are a HUGE chunk of that world.
We are our child’s first teacher and first friend. When we play with our children, we do more than simply have fun with them. We nurture them. We model healthy communication skills. We build bonds.
Play is one of the most powerful tools we have in our parenting toolbox.
FUN-damental Foundations
Introduced in the 1960s by psychologist Ann Jernberg, Ph.D., as part of Chicago’s Head Start Program, Theraplay was developed as an effort to serve an overwhelmingly large number of preschool children with limited community mental health resources. Theraplay was an innovative technique that allowed both professionals and laypersons the opportunity to be trained and supervised with this new intervention.
Trainees simply needed to be flexible, open, and willing to learn and apply therapeutic skills. The program was successful.
Theraplay has four guiding principles:
Structure – “the adult, the leader in the relationship creates, organization and predictability for the child which communicates safety”
Nurture – “the adult provides caring that can calm and soothe the child in a manner that makes them feel good physically and emotionally”
Engagement – “the adult is present in a manner that the child experiences being seen, heard, felt, and accepted”
Challenge – “the adult supports thew child in the acquisition and mastery of new skills, enhancing the child’s sense of competence and confidence.”
www.theraplay.org
Benefits of Theraplay:
- Fosters self-esteem
- Helps children feel safe
- Promotes healthy socialization
- Assists in self-regulation
Theraplay Tips:
There are numerous ways to purposefully play with your child.
Give your child the gift of choice! So much of children’s lives are dictated by the necessity of adults’ lives and schedules (i.e., dinner time, bathtime, bedtime). But when it comes to play, this is our child’s area of expertise! Put them in the driver’s seat and supply them with options.
When presenting your child with a choice, remember to provide options for activities that you are willing to engage in. For example, do not offer up finger painting if you are not willing to finger paint with your child.
Theraplay activities are limited only by you and your child’s imagination. Blow bubbles together, create a secret handshake, dig together in a sensory bin filled with kinetic sand and tiny treasures, do the hokey pokey, or play pretend. Invite your inner child to a playdate with your actual child.
Whatever activity you choose, remember to play with purpose. Focus on giving your child your full attention and engage with intention. Above all, theraplay is all about relationships.
Coming Up
Now that you have learned about how playing with your child can help them manage big feelings you are ready for the next tip in our series, Eight Ways To Help Your Child With Emotional Regulation, Playing Detective.
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Blessings,
Kimberly Bennett, LPC
Founder/CEO It’s Only Homeschooling
Founder/CEO The Homeschool Counseling Network
This website is not a professional counseling website and nothing here should be construed as professional counseling advice. Although Kimberly Bennett, LPC is a Licensed Professional Counselor, she is not your counselor, and no counselor-client relationship is established unless she has signed an agreement with you. All information provided through this website is for informational and educational purposes only.
