Resilience And Play

Building Resilience Through Play

By Jessica Jordan, MS, OTR/L

The word resilience spelt on scrabble tiles

Resilience is defined as the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties.  On the contrary, play is defined as engaging in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose.  One may ask, how does play and resilience go together? 

Well, play can be a useful modality that can build resilience in children starting from a young age.  Resilience isn’t something that can be taught, but something that develops and in this blog we will take a deeper look at how play supports those building blocks.  First, let’s look at the 3 most important factors needed to develop resilience.

The 3 Most Important Factors In Building Resilience

After listening to the Brain Architect Podcast, there were 3 factors that were listed as essential in order to build resilience.

  1. Supportive relationships

  2. Reducing stress

  3. Building coping skills

Out of the 3, supportive relationships were of critical importance in order to build resilience.  This felt automatic to me, as a mother to two young children, and a placental mammal, my bond with my children started in the womb up until they came earthside into this world.  Bonding and attachment is essential for infants, as it yields as a key factor into how an infant’s brain organizes itself and how the baby will develop socially, emotionally, intellectually, and physically. 

The podcast shared that the supportive relationships did not need to be a parental figure, but even a close family friend, cousin, or relative!

anterior view of child leaning into father/male figure and hugging in a field. They are both smiling.

Back To Play

In the lens of an OT, play is a child’s primary occupation.  The way which children play varies, as do the benefits of play, but play is the first way children learn to develop skills, specifically resilience.  Play helps children to learn their environment, and challenge their environment.  Play is all about exploration, discovery, curiosity, action and reaction and is such an important activity of daily living that supports overall physical, emotional, and mental health! 

Now, we want to turn it back to you. How do you feel play builds resilience?

SUNRISE Therapies#OT, #pedsOT, pediatric occupational therapy, #pediatricOT, #occupational therapy, resilience, play, playtimeComment