10 Play Therapy Activities and Ideas

What are play therapy activities?

Play therapy is an evidence-based therapeutic approach that allows therapists, psychologists, and counselors to engage with children and adolescents through play. In this context, play involves structured activities that help children express and process their emotions and experiences in a safe and healthy manner. These activities can be conducted in one-on-one sessions or group settings with peers, often incorporating toys and creative materials to facilitate expression and interaction.

Play therapy is particularly effective for helping children navigate emotional and developmental challenges. By engaging in play therapy, therapists can guide children in developing essential skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication. These skills are vital for building confidence, self-esteem, and resilience, enabling children to adopt healthier coping mechanisms and avoid self-destructive and disruptive behaviors.

Healthcare professionals who use play therapy carefully tailor sessions based on their observations and insights from parents and guardians. Initial assessments are crucial for understanding a child's unique needs and challenges, allowing play therapists to design a customized play therapy program. This program may include activities such as painting, storytelling, playing board games, and other toys. Activities are chosen to address specific therapeutic goals and can involve individual sessions, group interactions with a play therapist and other children, or participation with parents and guardians.

Later in this guide, we will explore specific role play in therapy activities and their applications. But first, let’s examine how these activities benefit therapists in achieving therapeutic outcomes.

Why are play therapy activities helpful?

As experienced therapists, psychologists, and mental health counselors know, getting patients to open up can be challenging. This is especially true at the start of the therapeutic relationship. This difficulty is even more pronounced when working with children who may be hesitant to share their thoughts and feelings with someone they perceive as a stranger.

Play therapy activities offer a unique solution to this challenge. They provide an engaging and approachable way for children to express themselves without the pressure of traditional talk-based therapy. Since play is a natural and enjoyable activity for most children, incorporating it into therapy helps them feel more comfortable and relaxed. When children are allowed to play, they experience a sense of fun and enjoyment, signaling that they are in a safe space.

Creating a sense of safety is at the heart of any play therapy session. These activities help establish an environment where children feel free to express themselves without fear of judgment. This atmosphere encourages children to share their emotions and experiences more openly, allowing therapists to gain valuable insights into their inner world. Play therapy activities facilitate meaningful communication and connection between the therapist and the child by fostering a safe and supportive setting.

Why are Play Therapy Activities helpful?

If you have been a therapist, psychologist, or counselor for a long time, then you know how hard it is to get patients to talk sometimes, especially at the start! Why wouldn’t it be when you are a stranger to patients during the early sessions? While some may find it easy to open up to strangers, most people won’t have an easy time doing so. And if it’s already difficult to get adults to open up to you for therapy, what more when your patient is a kid?

The great thing about Play Therapy Activities is that they help therapists with getting kids to open up. Play is likely to be more effective than talk-based therapy because kids just like playing in general. If they are able to play, that means they know they have the opportunity to have fun, and when they are able to have fun, that means they feel safe enough to just enjoy what they are doing.

Making kids feel safe is the point of Play Therapy. Play Therapy Activities help create an atmosphere for the kids to know they are in a space without judgment and that they can freely express themselves in a safe environment.

10 Play Therapy Activities and Ideas

Now that we have discussed the importance of play therapy techniques, here is a short list of specific activities that you might consider incorporating into a child play therapy or program:‍‍

1. Magic wand play

This activity requires a wand, and you might also consider using wizard or witch costumes for role-playing. Kids only need to wave their wands and make three wishes for this particular activity. It's a fantastic way to get them to say what they want out loud. If they can verbalize it, they might want to pretend to play with it even more!

Do take note of their wishes. Something might be important to note, especially if they wish to improve something in their family members' lives. The play therapy continues beyond the session as you observe how these wishes and insights can inform future therapeutic goals.

2. Sock puppet making

For this one, make sure to have a lot of socks that kids can use to make characters. Therapists should make their own sock puppets and use them to talk to the kids.

The kids can respond by making their own sock puppets and having pretend play with them to talk to yours. This is a good strategy in treating children, allowing them to open up to you because they can speak about themselves through their sock puppets.

3. Inside and outside mask-making

For this one, you only need sheets of paper and drawing materials. Instruct the kids to make two masks. One mask should be something they would like for people to see, and the other that they want to keep for themselves.

You can use this alongside sock puppet making by having your sock puppets interact with kids to ask about both masks, especially the one they want to keep to themselves.

You might be able to learn about any insecurities they might have and find ways to help combat those insecurities through strategy games and other types of play.

‍4. Inside and outside box-making

This is similar to the inside and outside mask-making, but this time, it involves shoeboxes and many magazines, not masks. For this play therapy activity, kids only need to decorate their boxes using magazine cutouts. These can be headlines, actual passages in articles, and even pictures.

For the outside part, they need to decorate it with positive cutouts, while the inside of the box will be decorated with negative cutouts. The point of this is to show that they can compartmentalize and put a lid on the negative things in their lives. This might also help the child boost self-esteem and emotional resilience.

5‍. Tell me a story

This activity is all about storytelling. It can be done in two ways:

1. You tell a story with characters and conflicts, and then you provide a moral lesson to the kids. You can make it interactive by having them think about solutions to conflicts as you go about your story.
2. They tell you a story, and you provide resolutions to conflicts.

This can help teach children to understand, give them critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and give them ideas on good morals. You can read from a children's book or make your own. The same goes for them. If they are making up their own stories, give them the time to do so and prepare.

6. Tearing paper

Hand the kids pieces of paper and have them write down everything that makes them angry. Then, have them tear the paper and throw the pieces into a trashcan. This is a good opportunity for them to learn how to let angry feelings go and throw away their anger without resorting to unfavorable methods of coping with negative emotions.

This is not exactly environment-friendly and can be a waste of paper, depending on how you see it, so we only recommend this if you think it might be good to add to your play therapy program.

‍7. Worry dolls

This is similar to the tearing paper activity, but without ripping anything.

This requires you to buy a set of stuffed toys. Kids will write down their worries on strips of paper and attach them to dolls using a clip or tape. After attaching their worry strips to the dolls, they place them in a box and act like they are leaving them behind.

This aims to teach kids how to let go of their worries because worries can lead to anxiety and other things that may impact them for an entire day or more. Many parents also use this method to teach their children to let go in general. Think Toy Story 3!

8‍. Bubble blowing and popping

This is straightforward. The children simply need to blow bubbles and have fun popping them! It's a simple way for them to release stress.

‍9. Emotional thermometer

We recommend using this when you have bonded with the kids enough that they trust you and are open to speaking about their emotions. Create a makeshift thermometer with a rating of 0 - 10. 0 stands for “absolutely happy,” while 10 stands for “really sad.” This can also be replaced with other emotions.

Have them talk about significant experiences in their lives, ask them to rate these experiences based on whether they make them happy or sad, and then have them explain why they rated an experience a certain way. This should help them better articulate their feelings and learn coping strategies to establish rapport and trust.

‍10. Create a vision board

Buy corkboards and pins. Have your kids fill their respective corkboards with things that represent what they want in life, what they would like to be in the future, their hopes and dreams, and what goals they want to achieve. They can do so through magazine cutouts, drawing, or even through writing. They just need to pin them on their corkboard.

Have them talk about their corkboards to you (and others if you conduct this as a family member or part of a group). This encourages goal setting, and having them verbalize what they want might inspire them even more to achieve what they want in life. This might also help them build confidence, self-esteem, self-control, and self-worth.

What are the benefits of play therapy activities?

Play therapy activities offer numerous advantages for both therapists and young patients. These activities provide a unique approach to therapy by leveraging the natural inclination of children to express themselves through play. By incorporating play therapy sessions into therapeutic sessions, therapists can create an engaging and supportive environment that facilitates emotional expression and skill development. Below are some key benefits of play therapy activities:

It can help therapists better treat their younger patients

Talk-based therapy may not be the most effective way for children to open up during sessions. Children might not fully understand the world around them and their feelings, making it difficult for them to articulate themselves. Play therapy seeks to create a safe, nonjudgmental, and nurturing environment where children can express themselves naturally through play. As children engage in enjoyable activities, they may reveal aspects of themselves that therapists should observe closely.

It can help children develop essential skills

Play therapy is more than just therapy for children. It provides a safe space for them to play, be themselves, and express themselves healthily. It is also an interactive way to teach children essential skills to help them confront current and future challenges. These skills include critical thinking, problem-solving and healthy coping mechanisms. Children learn and practice these social skills together through play therapy in a supportive environment, enhancing their emotional and social development.

It can help parents better understand their children

Involving parents in therapy sessions is highly recommended. This involvement allows parents to become aware of therapeutic methods, observe their children’s behaviors during activities and learn their perspectives on experiences.

Using the family relations technique, therapists can guide parents to reinforce these observations at home. Gaining these insights can lead to improved family dynamics and overall happiness. Parents can continue reinforcing therapeutic progress at home, ensuring significant and lasting improvements in their children’s well-being.

By integrating play therapy activities into treatment plans, therapists can foster a more comprehensive understanding of their young patients, further healthy development, facilitate essential skill development, and strengthen family relationships. This will ultimately contribute to positive outcomes and better therapeutic outcomes as play therapy continues beyond the clinical setting.