In this class we will explore ways to understand and interpret the symbolic content of children’s play. This is aimed at early career therapists, counselors, social workers, early childhood educators, and others who work with children.   The goal is to examine child’s play and increase the rewards and benefits of working with children and their families.

The first class will help the participants examine his or her own child-focused environment and discuss what is play as a non-verbal and verbal act.

The second class will examine vignettes of child observations that are in different stages of development.  We will open the questions of what is the child saying and not saying.

The third class will examine the questions of how to interact and interpret what the child might be doing with his or her play. We will consider developmental help and thoughts on the co-creative process.  The reading of brief papers by child analysts and infant observers will be discussed to support the topic of each class meeting.

Objectives:

• Articulate the role of play in different stages of child development.
• The student will be able to identify characteristics of regressive play and age appropriate play.
• Each student will be able to define the basic attributes of non-verbal actions and verbal play as observed in the parent-child relationship.
• The student will be able to define elements of the symbolic meaning of play, as illustrated in clinical vignettes.
• The student will be able to identify several of the challenges of interpretation.
• The student will be able to delineate the symbolism of play within the adult-child relationship.
• The student will be able to describe the co-creative play process and how it deepens the therapeutic process.

Course Level:  Introductory

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