How I can help
Play & development
Through play children learn to plan, tolerate frustration, cooperate and try new things. When a certain kind of play is consistently hard or avoided, that is useful information.
What you might notice
- Difficulty joining in age-appropriate play
- Play that is repetitive and narrow in range
- Difficulty with rule-based games, turn-taking or cooperation
- Giving up quickly when play is challenging
- Preferring to play alone even when there is a social opportunity
Why this might be happening
Sometimes a type of play demands a skill that is still developing — motor, planning or regulation.
Sometimes the difficulty is coping with losing, uncertainty or a change in the rules.
Play isn't 'the problem' — it is the arena where difficulty becomes visible and can be worked on naturally.
What skills are involved
Creativity and initiative
Starting, inventing and leading play.
Flexibility
Adapting to change and to another child's idea.
Emotional regulation
Coping with losing and frustration and staying in the game.
Social skills
Turn-taking, negotiating and cooperating.
How occupational therapy can help
- Widening the range of play and making it accessible
- Working on regulation and frustration inside a meaningful context
- Grading the challenge so success is possible
- Practical guidance for supporting play at home
What Shira might assess
- Range, initiative and persistence in play
- Coping with rules, turns and losing
- Motor and planning abilities within play
- Interaction with adults and with children
When it's worth speaking to someone
- When play has become a source of stress rather than pleasure
- When avoiding play is affecting friendships
Worth saying
A single sign doesn't mean a child needs therapy. Children develop at different rates, and often this is entirely ordinary variation. The point of a conversation is to understand the picture, not to find a problem.
Not sure exactly what your child needs? You can start with a conversation.
You don't need to diagnose the difficulty yourself. You can simply describe what you're seeing, and we'll start from a shared understanding of whether an occupational therapy assessment or treatment is appropriate.