Learn to Play Therapy
Some children struggle to engage in make-believe, take turns, or share attention with another person. This isn’t a reflection of your child or your parenting. They just need extra support to develop the foundational skills that play requires. Learn to Play Therapy offers that support in a gentle, structured, and playful way.
When play doesn’t come easily
Play is more than just something children do. It’s how they make sense of the world, build relationships, and develop the skills they need for learning. When you notice your child:
- Prefers solitary play and struggles to engage with peers
- Finds it difficult to pretend, take on roles, or use objects symbolically
- Has trouble sharing attention or following a friend’s lead
- Repeats the same play activities rather than exploring flexibly
These patterns can sometimes be a sign that a child needs extra support to develop the underlying skills of play.
What Learn to Play Therapy is
Learn to Play Therapy is a structured approach that supports children who find it difficult to engage in flexible, imaginative, or reciprocal play. Developed in Australia by Dr Karen Stagnitti, the approach gently builds foundational play skills, shared attention, and connection with others.
Rather than asking children to play in a particular way, the approach follows your child’s lead within a structured framework — gradually expanding their play skills and capacity to engage with others.
What a session looks like
Sessions are typically once a week, in a calm and playful environment filled with carefully selected materials — puppets, sand, small figures, building blocks, dressing-up props, and more.
The therapist follows your child’s interests, joining their play and gently expanding it. Over time, we work together on skills like:
- Shared attention — playing together with a common focus
- Imitation — copying and building on each other’s ideas
- Self-regulation — managing frustration, transitions, and turn-taking
- Symbolic play — using objects to represent other things (a block becomes a phone, a box becomes a house)
- Narrative thinking — weaving actions, ideas, and characters into coherent storylines with a beginning, middle, and end
- Reciprocity — taking turns, sharing ideas, and negotiating roles
What it supports
Learn to Play Therapy helps children develop:
- Confidence in play — engaging more freely with toys, peers, and adults
- Flexible thinking — moving between ideas and approaches
- Social skills — sharing, taking turns, and reading social cues
- Connection — building relationships with peers and family
- Foundations for learning — many of the same skills that support play also support attention, language, and school readiness
For more information about Learn to Play Therapy, visit learntoplaytherapy.com.