Since 2009, The Children's Society has been documenting a concerning trend: a steady decline in children's happiness. Earlier this year, the Children’s Commissioner revealed that there are more than a quarter of a million children still waiting for mental health support from the NHS. The impact of this unprecedented pressure is far-reaching, especially for educators, who are on the frontline of caring for and supporting children throughout their vital formative years.
With a sharp decline in children’s free play since the 1950s and research showing a decrease in children’s creativity since the 1990s, we’ve seen a disturbing pattern in children becoming progressively less empowered to make decisions, take risks and solve problems, with a steady increase in childhoods being filled with anxiety and depression.
As the burden falls ever more onto the school system and educators to ensure that they are nurturing children who are both academically successful and emotionally healthy, it’s understandable that this crisis is having a direct impact on educators, who are already under results-based pressures and facing a reduction in resources and support.
I want to present an idea to help inspire hope and take things right back to basics. This idea centres around a child’s first language – play. In exploring this, I will also set out the implications for schools, teachers and their professional development.
The power of play therapy
Play is the natural language of children. Before we learn to articulate our feelings with words, we use play to help express and understand our emotions. We use play to explore the world around us, learn creative problem-solving skills and experience new ways to relate to our peers, siblings, parents and teachers. Despite this, we frequently discount the truly transformative power that child-led play can have on nurturing our students' wellbeing, and in turn their academic success.