Summer is a time children and parents enjoy a break from the school year routine and demands. It’s a great time for families to enjoy vacation, later bed times and outdoor fun. It’s also an optimal opportunity for children and families to benefit from coming for play therapy sessions.
I encourage parents to schedule regular play therapy sessions during summer months for a variety of reasons. Play is the way children grow and heal. With the flexible schedule and more relaxed routine, summer is a good time to keep kids healing and growing.
Here are some top reasons to schedule regular play therapy sessions for your child this summer:
- The spirit of summer fun and break from demands of school enables children to immerse themselves in the therapeutic healing experience of play therapy. Kids naturally explore and express what they need through their play and since they are already in the mode of freer play activities during the summer months, scheduling sessions with a trained and registered play therapist is a great way to harness that play-based opportunity for healing and growth.
- Summer offers flexibility in scheduling for your therapist and your family. Since school is out, you might benefit from bringing your child to morning sessions before summer activities. You can find that midday play therapy sessions in the therapeutic play room can provide a break from the high temps of those hot summer days.
- If your child has benefited from play therapy during the school year, continuity of that momentum can be important and beneficial. Interruption of the established flow of play therapy services might cause a set-back in your child’s progress.
- Summer can be an optimal time for family bonding and family play therapy sessions can help to facilitate those bonds. Your therapist can design fun, interactive play sessions for the whole family that will have lasting positive impact not only for your child’s healing and growth but for the entire family.
Summer is a good time for kids’ healing and growing just as summer nurtures the lush growth of the grass, trees and gardens. Warmer temperatures, longer daylight hours, less stress and more flexibility lend to space and time for children to stretch and explore who they are in relationship to the world and others around them. Play therapists are trained to know how to provide the space for children to expand their natural ability to explore, express and experience their world through play. It is through this natural experience that growth and healing takes place.
If you’d like to discuss how play therapy can benefit your child and family this summer, please contact me and we can talk about the specific ways a customized summer plan can be developed to benefit you and your child.