PLAY

Are we playful enough in our therapy sessions?
I really enjoyed listening to the recent EACD Research Works podcast episode with Professor Stacey Dusing about play.
It made me really think about how I play in sessions and reflect on whether I am manipulating the play too much and not letting the child direct the play enough instead. As the nominated "fidelity assessor" in our work place I wonder whether we should be assessing our play fidelity too?

[MatthewHaddon]

I find this so tricky! It can be so challenging to give a child free time to just play, particularly if you are completing an assessment, or feel the need to 'optimise' the limited session time that you have by spending more time practicing the goal and less time in play. Having play nicely built within the goal activity helps to balance and integrate these things. But it's not an easy thing to have a play-based activity that allows for free independent play while achieving adequate dose/practice of the desired task/goal.

It would be so interesting to look at play fidelity alongside the Evidence-Based Practice Fidelity Tool (Jackman et al., 2025). Can you achieve perfect fidelity of both in a therapy approach/session? I know that it would be hard for me to do consistently well, but a great thing to work towards!

I agree i often feel like as therapists we direct the play to help us get the designated outcome/practice of a task and have reflected on the importance of allowing the child to have more choice and freedom in this. I would especially like to look more at the research on play and engagement for children who are GMFCS IV and V too.