By Kathy Eugster, MA
Play is the language of childhood. It’s how children express themselves – symbolically, imaginatively, and often without words.
Best Play Therapy Tips Offered by Kathy Eugster
Play is the language of childhood—it’s how children express emotions, work through challenges, and connect with the world around them. But what happens when your child turns away from your attempts to play? Or when you’re unsure how to join them in a way that truly builds connection?
In this guide, retired certified play therapist Kathy Eugster shares some of the best play therapy tips to help parents and caregivers create meaningful, healing moments with their children. Whether you’re a parent, caregiver, or educator, these gentle strategies can strengthen your bond, support emotional growth, and bring more joy and trust into your relationship—one moment of intentional play at a time.
By Kathy Eugster
The holiday season is supposed to be a time of joy, warmth, and connection. Yet for many parents, embracing in the holiday magic feels less obtainable when the season feels like never-ending shopping lists and obligations. These days, it’s so easy to get swept up in the stress and commercialism of the holidays and forget about their real essence, which is not in the gifts we buy, but in the memories we create. Here’s why investing time in enjoying your children, sharing the magic, and focusing on the true meaning of the holidays is essential.
Written by Kathy Eugster, MA
We are learning from the fields of neuroscience and child-development how important it is for parents to play with their kids. That children need many positive, face-to-face interactions with attentive, sensitive, and responsive parents or caregivers for healthy brain and nervous system development. Play activities between parent and child are excellent ways to provide these necessary interactions to children.
Parent-child play offers unique benefits to children over children’s peer play or independent play because parents are older and wiser and can support their child’s development in a variety of different ways. Many research studies have found that play between a parent and child is one of the best ways to strengthen the parent-child relationship.
Written by Lorrie Holmes – story originally published in BC Parent!