Occupational therapy

Play and playing with others

Play is how children practise almost everything else — problem solving, negotiation, losing, pretending, waiting, and recovering when it goes wrong. It is also where friendships are made, which is why it matters so much to a child and to the adults watching.

Our occupational therapists work with children across Springfield and Ipswich whose play is narrow, repetitive or hard to share, building the skills that let them join in on their own terms.

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How play develops

Play is not one skill but a sequence, and knowing where a child is in that sequence tells you what to teach next:

  • Exploratory play — mouthing, banging, finding out what things do
  • Cause and effect play — pressing, posting, making something happen
  • Functional play — using objects for their purpose, brushing a doll’s hair
  • Constructive play — building towards an idea rather than just stacking
  • Symbolic and pretend play — a block becomes a phone, then a whole storyline
  • Rule-based and cooperative play — games with rules, shared goals, and losing gracefully

Alongside that sits the social side: watching others, joining in, taking a turn, following someone else’s idea, and repairing things after a disagreement.

Signs you might notice

  • Playing with the same few toys, in the same way, for a long time
  • Lining up or sorting rather than using toys in play
  • Little or no pretend play by the age you would expect
  • Playing near other children but not with them
  • Only able to play when it is their game and their rules
  • Struggling with losing, or ending games as soon as they start to go badly
  • Being left out, or coming home saying they have nobody to play with
  • An educator raising concerns about group time or the playground

How our occupational therapists help

We meet children in the play they already enjoy and widen it from there, rather than trying to replace their interests with ours. Narrow interests are a starting point, not a problem to be eliminated.

From there we build the specific skills that are missing — entering a game, taking a turn, following someone else’s idea, coping with losing, and repairing after a falling-out. Where the issue is more about communication than play itself, we work alongside speech pathology rather than duplicating it. For autistic children, the goal is connection on terms that work for them, not looking less autistic.

What sessions might look like

Games, mostly. Turn-taking games with a built-in chance of losing, pretend play scenarios, construction with a shared goal, and small-group sessions where there is another child to practise with. We set the difficulty so that things go wrong just often enough to practise recovering.

Where the hard part is the playground, we go to the playground. We also work with educators on what support looks like at lunchtime, which is usually where it is needed most.

What an assessment involves

A play assessment works out where your child sits in the play sequence and which social steps are missing, so therapy starts at the right level.

  1. Your history and concerns. What your child plays with, who they play with, and what you are hearing from kindy or school.
  2. Free play observation. Watching what your child chooses when nobody is directing them.
  3. Structured play tasks. Introducing pretend, construction and rule-based activities to see what your child can do with support.
  4. Play level mapping. Placing your child in the developmental play sequence, which sets the next target.
  5. Social interaction observation. Entering a game, taking turns, following another person’s idea, and handling a loss.
  6. Educator input. With your permission, what group time and the playground actually look like.
  7. Underlying skills. Motor, sensory, attention and communication factors that may be limiting play rather than play itself.

We will talk you through what we found in plain language, show you what it means day to day, and agree the first goals with you before any therapy starts.

Where we see children

  • In our Springfield clinic
  • At home
  • At daycare, kindy or school
  • In the community

Related pages

Frequently asked questions

My child prefers playing alone. Is that a problem?

Not in itself. Plenty of children are happiest in their own company and go on to have perfectly good friendships. It is worth looking at when your child wants to join in and cannot, when it is causing them distress, or when playing alone is the only option available to them rather than a preference.

Should I be worried that my child only plays with one thing?

A deep interest is a strength and often the best possible starting point for therapy. The question is whether your child can be flexible when they need to be — share the activity, tolerate it ending, or join something else when asked. That flexibility is what we work on, not the interest itself.

Is this the same as a social skills group?

There is overlap, but we tend to start individually so we can work out which specific skill is missing, then move into small groups to practise it with a real peer. Groups are where the learning gets tested, which is the point — but a group alone can be a lot of practice at the wrong level if the groundwork has not been done.

Ready to help your child join in?

We’ll partner with you to create a plan that works for your family — with access, empathy and hope.

Request an appointment Occupational therapy

Or call 0480 841 300 · hello@accesstotherapy.com.au