Theraplay games
BLANKET PLAY
Roll a shower scrunchie or soft ball on the blanket, naming who it’s going to. Can you work together to bounce it? Roll it right at the edge in a circle? Young children can crawl underneath between adults or be ‘zoomed’ like an aeroplane.
SPECIAL HANDSHAKE
Starting with the adult giving a handshake, the child adds a gesture they choose (e.g. first a handshake, then a fist bump, elbow touch etc). This can be added to by different family members (each time start back from the handshake and go through everyone’s additions) or back and forth between adult and child to make a personalised ‘special handshake’ to be remembered and used at the start and end of family time.
COTTONBALL GAMES – COTTONBALL HOCKEY
Adult and child lay on the floor facing each other on their stomachs (laying on a cushion helps). Their arms are stretched out in front, shoulder width apart to create a playing area or pitch and adult lightly holds or rest their hands on top of the child’s. A cottonwool ball is placed in the middle of the pitch and adult and child both try to blow the cottonball into their opponents’ ‘goal’ -the cushion or top of their chest.
MAGIC PAINT
Pretend you have some invisible paint; you can use a cottonball to ‘mix’ the child’s favourite colour and gently pretend ‘paint’ something you love about their child’s face (e.g. the shape of their eyebrows) in the imaginary magic colour. Multiple colours can be named, mixed, and painted with, to enjoy the child.
OBSTACLE COURSES
These can be made simply with a few cushions, bean bags, pop up tunnel, a chair or whatever’s to hand. This can be turned into a game of Traffic Lights – on RED stop AMBER listen to the instruction GREEN have a go at the challenge (e.g. hop ten times on the cushion, balance the shoe on your head).
WRAP UP AS A MUMMY
You need a toilet roll and wrap the child in the toilet roll and listen for the instruction to burst out!!. (A more cost effective game would be to just wrap up the child’s hands) Why not use the toilet roll after and make it into balls, the parent can be the ‘hoop’ and the child throw the balls into the hoop.
BALLOONS
Why not try passing the balloon to one another without using your hands!. There are other games to play balloons for example keeping the balloon up in the air with your hand, foot, head etc.
WHAT TIME IS IT MR WOLF?
Why not play what time is it Mr Wolf with your child.
SIMON SAYS
See if your child can follow the instructions when ‘Simon says’.