Play-based Activities
The Curative Touch of a Magic Rainbow Hug: Janet Courtney
As Director of Developmental Play & Attachment Therapies and adjunct Professor at Barry University, Janet's career is centered on bringing psychological healing to children. She is an internationally recognized Play Therapist specializing in expressive therapies and attachment treatment who has invented a new process of kinesthetic storytelling, merging imagery relaxation skills with joyful first-play touch activities. Her interactive storybook, The Magic Rainbow Hug makes this technique directly accessible to professionals, parents, and the children who can most benefit from it's use.
Sand Play
While play is a fun activity that can help a child learn, it can also be used to help children who have experienced trauma, learn coping skills. Well take a look at the benefits of sand play therapy.
The decline of play: Peter Gray
In this talk, Dr. Peter Gray compellingly brings attention to the reality that over the past 60 years in the United States there has been a gradual but, overall dramatic decline in children's freedom to play with other children, without adult direction. Over this same period, there has been a gradual but overall dramatic increase in anxiety, depression, feelings of helplessness, suicide, and narcissism in children and adolescents. Based on his own and others' research, Dr. Gray documents why free play is essential for children's healthy social and emotional development and outlines steps through which we can bring free play back to children's lives.
The colour sorting game
Get children to sort the coloured pompoms in the correct place on the rainbow. Talk about which colour might elicit different emotion.
The bean-bag tossing game
Line five buckets up in a row, and assign a value to each bucket. The bucket closest will have the lesser value while the bucket that it the greatest distance away from the 'trowing line' will be worth the most. a good game for increasing social skills and hand-eye co-ordination.
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