“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.”
-Mr. Rogers-
I often explain to families, caregivers, and even sometimes the children that I work with, that during speech and language therapy, we PLAY. This is the most powerful tool I have to teach a child, because as Mr. Rogers put it so well, it is the “work” of childhood. Play is how children naturally learn and process the world around them. When they are having fun, laughing, and ENGAGED…this is when the real learning happens. Through play, children watch, listen, explore, imitate, and create. They are able to soak in adult “models” in real situations, not just hypothetical situations that are pictures on a flashcard. They are able to TRY the skill that has been modeled for them immediately back in their own play and get feedback with further modeling from the adult or peer with whom they are playing.
Think about your favorite class in school. How did the teacher teach? Was it lecturing style? Experiences? Visuals? Hands on? Often the best teachers use as many learning modalities and incorporate as many learning styles into their teaching as possible. This helps the learner not only retain the information, but be able to use it in a meaningful way in the future. This is why using play during therapy is what I believe to be the best approach we could take with our children. During play, the goal is to have the child engaged in the learning style that is most effective for them. This allows the child to soak up the information, retain it, and then be able to use it in a functional and real-life application down the road. This is a challenging skill for most adult brains (let alone children’s brains) to glean from the typical classroom instructional style alone.
So, what kind of therapy goals can we work on through play? Actually… all of them. From using our best /p/ sound to talk about our new favorite shows “Peppa Pig” or “Paw Patrol”, to using a verb to describe what the Lego people should do next, speech and language are the essence of play. One of my favorite parts of my job is determining how we can use the child’s interests, strengths, and skills during play to teach them something new and wonderful that they will be able to use to enhance their life. As you might be able to tell, I am VERY passionate about playing with kids. More ideas, thoughts, and examples to come in the blog posts ahead!
-Kasey-