The Power of Play: Effective Play-Based Therapy and Early Intervention

Effective play therapy strategies for enhancing development in early intervention settings
Do you recognize the power play can have in your therapeutic practice? Play is a powerful vehicle for learning. Creating effective play-based therapy sessions in early intervention requires creativity, flexibility, and an understanding of how play impacts development. Young children learn best through play that is relevant and meaningful to their lives, not through direct instruction. Often times, therapy can become too rigid and too much about task completion and not enough about play. Professionals who work with very young children must understand and respect the power of play in a child's development.

This one-day seminar provides a fresh approach to working with the birth to three population that promotes cognitive, physical, social-emotional, and language development in a natural, non-therapeutic manner. This seminar teaches clinically-relevant ideas and activities using materials in the natural environment to create fun and effective learning opportunities. There's more to therapy than puzzles and shape sorters! Therapists and educators gain more insight as to how play has changed over the years as a result of technology. Regardless of where a child receives the direct therapy (home vs. center), families and caregivers need to be an integral part of the intervention process when working with the birth to three population in order to maximize each child?s potential. Clinicians can empower caregivers by embedding intervention into functional contexts that naturally occur throughout the day.