Written by Louise Conn, Client Experience, NAPA Centre Australia
The role of play in therapy is to give children a reason to take part, practise and keep trying, while making sure therapy fits into their childhood rather than taking it over. At NAPA Centre, play is how we deliver purposeful, clinical work in a way that still lets kids be kids.
Key takeaways
For many families raising a child with disability, therapy can become a big part of family life. There are appointments to get to, programs to plan, goals to work towards, reports to read, equipment to organise and, for some children, intensive periods of therapy that require a significant commitment from the whole family.
It can sometimes feel as though there is always another appointment, another recommendation or another thing you could be doing to support your child’s development. Parents can find themselves spending a huge amount of time thinking about therapy, whether that’s organising it, travelling to it, talking about it or trying to fit everything else around it.
And while therapy can play an incredibly important role in a child’s development, independence and participation, there is something we never want to lose sight of: they’re still a child.
Children need opportunities to play, laugh, explore, be curious, be silly and discover what they enjoy. They need time with their families and friends. They need to develop interests that have nothing to do with therapy and experience the simple joy of being a kid.
So, how do we make therapy fit into that childhood, rather than asking childhood to fit around therapy?
At NAPA, therapy starts with getting to know the child behind the diagnosis. Understanding a child’s diagnosis and clinical needs is important, but it is only one part of understanding who they are. We want to know:
These things matter because children learn through active participation. A child’s interests can provide a powerful pathway into therapy, helping therapists create opportunities for children to practise skills without the experience feeling like a series of exercises they have been asked to complete. For example:
The activity may look like play, but there is often a great deal of clinical thinking behind it.
Making therapy fun and engaging isn’t about making therapy less purposeful or less clinical. It is about finding meaningful ways to deliver that clinical work, which is the idea behind purposeful play in therapy. When a child is interested in what they are doing, they are more likely to:
This doesn’t mean that every moment of therapy will be easy, or that children will love every activity. Therapy can be challenging. Children may need to work hard, try something many times or move outside their comfort zone. The difference is finding a reason for them to want to keep going.
Sometimes that reason is winning a game. Sometimes it is reaching a favourite toy. Sometimes it is being able to do something independently for the first time. Sometimes it is simply knowing that their therapist understands what makes them tick.
That is where play becomes so powerful. It gives children a reason to participate in the work.
There is another important part of making therapy feel like childhood: other children.
Children learn so much from watching and interacting with one another. They copy each other, encourage each other, compete, cooperate and celebrate each other’s successes. Seeing another child attempt something can sometimes provide a different kind of motivation, the sense that if someone else can have a go, maybe they can too. Even parallel play, where children play side by side, helps build these early social skills.
For children with disability, these opportunities to connect with peers aren’t always easy to find. Physical environments aren’t always accessible, activities aren’t always designed with different abilities in mind, and children may need additional support to participate. Play and friendship also help children with disability build social-emotional, communication and physical skills.
That is why creating opportunities for children to play together is an important part of the NAPA experience.
A child might be working with their therapist on one side of the gym while another child is practising something nearby. They might stop to watch each other, join in a game, cheer someone on or simply share a laugh. These interactions aren’t necessarily part of the formal therapy plan, but they can become meaningful experiences in their own right.
For some children, simply seeing other children moving, communicating and playing in different ways can help broaden their understanding of what is possible.
NAPA clinics are designed with a combination of open, active gym spaces and dedicated therapy rooms, and having both is important.
This allows therapy to be flexible and responsive to what each child needs on any given day, whether that’s working closely with their therapist on a specific skill, engaging in purposeful one-on-one play, or getting out into the gym to move, explore and connect with others.
The environment becomes part of the therapy experience, creating space for focus, challenge, play, safety and connection.
One of the most important things we can teach children is that participation doesn’t mean everyone has to do something in exactly the same way.
One child might run across the gym while another uses a mobility aid. One might communicate verbally while another uses AAC (augmentative and alternative communication). One might need physical assistance to participate in a game, while another can do it independently.
They can still play together. They can still have fun together. They can still be part of the same experience.
For children with disability, finding ways to participate alongside their peers can be incredibly important. It builds confidence and social connection, and it also helps children experience themselves as active participants rather than always being the child who is being supported or helped.
This is something we want children to experience at NAPA, not just in therapy, but as they move through their homes, schools and communities. Participation isn’t about everyone doing exactly the same thing. It is about finding a way for everyone to be involved.
When we talk about therapy, it is easy to focus on the big milestones. A new physical skill, a new communication ability or a new level of independence can be incredibly exciting, and those achievements deserve to be celebrated. But progress can also be much quieter. It might look like:
These moments matter because therapy isn’t ultimately about producing the best performance in a therapy room. It is about helping children participate in their everyday lives: at home, at school, in the playground, with their friends and in their communities.
Sometimes the most meaningful progress is the thing that allows a child to join in.
The experience of therapy is also about more than the child.
For parents, particularly those whose children have significant or complex needs, therapy can become a major part of family life. Families can spend hours travelling to appointments, sitting in waiting rooms and navigating systems and services. It can sometimes be an experience that feels quite isolating.
That’s why connection between families matters too. A welcoming therapy environment can give parents the opportunity to meet other families who understand some of the realities of raising a child with disability. Sometimes that connection is practical, like sharing an idea, a recommendation or something that has worked for their family. Sometimes it is simply having a conversation with someone who doesn’t need an explanation.
At NAPA, our shared spaces naturally create opportunities for this connection. Families might see each other regularly during an intensive program, children may become familiar with other children in the gym, and parents can become part of a community rather than feeling as though they are simply arriving for another appointment and leaving again.
Those relationships can become an important part of the therapy experience.
There is another side to this conversation that is easy to overlook: parents need to experience their child’s childhood too.
When so much of family life is focused on appointments, therapy goals, medical needs and planning for the future, it can be difficult to step back and simply enjoy the moment. Parents shouldn’t have to feel that every interaction with their child needs to be turned into a therapeutic opportunity.
Sometimes you can just play. Sometimes you can just go to the park or head out somewhere together for the day. Sometimes you can watch your child laugh and not think about what developmental skill they are practising.
Therapists can support families by helping identify meaningful opportunities for children to practise skills in everyday life, but that doesn’t mean parents need to turn home into another therapy clinic. There needs to be room for therapy and for simply being a family.
The environment we create around therapy can influence how children experience it. A clinical environment can be functional, but a child-friendly environment can invite children to explore. A gym filled with opportunities to move, play and interact can encourage children to become active participants in their own therapy.
It also gives therapists the flexibility to follow a child’s interests and adapt activities as they go:
Good therapy isn’t always about following a rigid script. It is about knowing the goals, understanding the child and being able to find meaningful ways to work towards those goals. Sometimes that means a carefully planned activity, sometimes it means following a child’s lead, and sometimes it means taking advantage of an unexpected moment that happens naturally in the gym.
Ultimately, therapy is only one part of a child’s life. Children with disability deserve access to excellent therapy and the opportunity to work towards meaningful goals. But they also deserve friendships, play, laughter, family time, interests, adventures and the chance to discover who they are beyond their therapy goals.
At NAPA, we want therapy to help make those experiences more possible. We want children to develop the skills and confidence to participate in the things that matter to them, to have opportunities to play alongside other children, to connect with their families and to experience success in ways that are meaningful to them.
And we want them to leave therapy knowing that they worked hard, but also knowing that they had fun. Because therapy matters, but childhood matters too.
The goal isn’t to create a childhood filled with therapy. The goal is to use therapy to help children experience more of the childhood they already have, with more opportunities to play, communicate, move, connect, participate and discover what they can do.
Therapy should be part of childhood, not the thing childhood has to fit around.
If you’d like to learn more about how play-based therapy at NAPA could support your child, submit a quick interest form and a member of the NAPA Centre team will be in touch to learn about your child and help find the right program for your family.