If your child’s behavior appears consistently out-of-control, more emotional than typical with a hard time calming down, or if behavior and mood shift dramatically over a period of weeks, it might benefit an assessment. A trained clinician who is well-versed in child development and psychotherapy such as a Registered Play Therapist can help you, the parent, figure out whether treatment will be helpful.

As a therapist who works primarily with children and young adults with ASD and sensory processing differences, I believe that it is important not to limit story-telling to what is expressed verbally. Taking into account the child’s individual differences is essential when it comes to engagement and communication, and some children communicate more readily through song, while jumping, dancing or swinging, or by using toys in symbolic play.

If you are a parent, therapist, caregiver, or any other professional or para professional who works with kids, then I guarantee that understanding a bit more about the emotional themes that underlie a child’s play can help your child grow, and can grow your relationship with that child.In this post I will focus on how to address feelings expressed in a child’s play and feelings expressed directly. I will first give an overview of Greenspan and Wieder’s (1998) 9 emotional themes to get us started in identifying emotional expressions in a child’s world.