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PLAY THERAPY

Rationale

Every individual should experience the fun and joy derived from play
activities that are available, affordable, accessible and adaptable. Dr.
William Meminger, a noted physician and psychologist, pointed out
that good health is directly related to play. Playing for fun and
pleasure helps children and special individuals improve their social
behaviors and consequently help them live better lives.

My book Play to Learn, Learn to Play presents and discusses play


activities designed to help able children and people with disabilities use
movement to develop and improve their skills. The activities have been so
structured to make play both enjoyable and productive for those who will teach
them as well as for those who will participate or play with them. Through these
activities, we hope to provide a positive, inclusive climate in which both the able
and disabled can learn to play together and play to learn together. Thus, through
inclusionary play programs, children as well as adults can have better
appreciation of the capabilities and feeling of people with disabilities.

BELIEF: We believe that all children can learn to play and play to learn.

We believe that movement activities contribute to the physical, social, and


psychological development of the child or the special individual. They help
discipline the body to move and thereby enabling the person to experience more
fun. They enable the person to gain confidence and build a positive self-image
associated with success and relates to other values which we aim to achieve in
the classroom, the home and the community,

Objectives

Play activities are meant to:

1. Develop the participants’ ability to hop, kick, jump, skip, walk, run,
catch, throw, and engage in group games.

2. Develop in them coordination, rhythm, agility, muscular power, and


endurance.

3. Develop their direction, balance, and focus.

4. Enable person with disabilities – the hearing impaired (HI),


mentally challenged (MC), visually impaired (VI), orthopedically
handicapped (OH), and autistic (A) – to relate with other people
(both able and disabled) in fun situations.

5. Guide children and people with disabilities in integrating knowledge


through play. This book presents a guided discovery method that
will help stimulate children and special individuals to engage in play
activities and raise their level of performance to help them relate
with subject matters learned in school. Children learn to explore,
discover, and satisfy their curiosity through play.

Tips for Teachers/Parents

1. Requirements: 4 A’s

A – Attention

A – Affection

A – Acceptance

A – Approval

2. Teaching Attitude

 Believe that the child can learn.


 Be patient and willing to teach.
 Make sure that the teaching situation is conducive to
learning.
 Teach with ease and fun.
 Love teaching.

3. Teaching Skills

4. Teaching Responsiveness

There can be many reasons why a child does not learn quickly:

 Disturbing thoughts
 Lack of preparedness
 Annoyance
 Noise
In these situations, this is what the teacher can do:

 Remove the source of annoyance


 Do not force the situation
 Do not give up
 Seek assistance

5. Teaching Approach: 5 D’s

D – iscover
D – esign
D – emonsrate
D – eliver
D – iscover

6. Choice of Activities: 4 A’s and 3 F’s

A – ccessible
A – vailable
A – daptable
A – ffordable
F – un-filled
F – it to the age and capability of the participant
F – unctional

7. Delivery: 5 S’s

S– implify your words


S– horten your words
S– peak clearly
S– et an example (model)
S– mile

8. Teacher’s Behavior: 4 C’s

C– aring
C– onsiderate
C– ooperative
C– onsistent

9. Guiding Principle: FOCUS (Child Centered)

F – ix your thoughts, eyes, and goals on his ability, not on


his disability
O – bserve the child very closely
C – oncentrate on the child’s behavior toward his playmates
U – nderstand the child
S – how sincerity in teaching and playing with the child

10. Commitment: LOVE

L – isten
O – pen yourself
V – alidate
E – ncourage

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