The Power of play

Whenever new caregivers set up an assessment for their child, one of the first questions I ask is “So do you know what Occupational Therapy (OT) is”? It’s most often met with a shake of the head and the deer caught in headlights look. 

 

Occupation is an old-fashioned word for activity - nowadays it’s used to describe our work or job. However, in the sense of OT, occupation encompasses all the activities one does each day. For adults it’s getting out of bed, getting dressed, self-care, cooking, driving, childcare and the list goes on and on - but we are not here to discuss adults, we are here for the little humans. 

 

So, what are children’s occupations you may ask, what is a child’s main purpose? To grow and develop. Our lovely parents take care of most of the child’s basic needs as they are not equipped to manage this independently just yet. So, what is left? What can a child do by themselves… PLAY! How are our children learning and growing? PLAY! So why is play viewed as “a relief from serious learning” while it is the essence of childhood? 

 

Coming back to OT - we are trained to provide our clients with rehabilitation that is meaningful to them. So naturally, when planning intervention for children - PLAY is the obvious choice. “My child goes to OT and all they do is play” “My son comes home, and he says it was the best playdate ever”. To the naked eye, it is all fun and games but believe you me - that play is disguised as promoting development. It is carefully engineered to work on areas in which the child needs extra support. Playdough for finger strengthening, pegs to promote finger isolation, drawing on the chalkboard to promote shoulder stability and the list goes on. 

 

“Scientists have discovered that it takes approximately 400 repetitions to create a new synapse in the brain, unless it is done in play, in which case it only takes 10 to 20 repetitions” - Karyn Purvis