Did you know that one of the best ways to support children who’ve experienced trauma is through play?
As I’m sure you’ve observed, young children tend to play out things they’ve experienced.
This is true whether their experience was good, bad, neutral…or traumatic.
That’s not to say every single thing a child has experienced makes its way into their play of course. But many experiences do. Perhaps especially those experiences that stand out as really interesting, fun…confusing or hard (even if they wouldn’t articulate those meanings to us).
This is one of the many reasons that it’s important to have time for open-ended free play.
Free play is one way that children explore and work things out.
Sometimes we also see this in their drawings.
…which is why time and space to use art materials in whatever way they wish and time for open-ended drawing is so important.
What kinds of experiences have you seen emerged in children’s play…and art?
How equipped do you currently feel to respond and support children when difficult or upsetting themes emerge in their play and art?
Let me know in the comments below.
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