In today’s fast-paced world, it’s easy to overlook the power of play in child development. We often focus on academic achievement, social skills, and structured learning—but play is the foundation of it all. For children, play is not just an enjoyable pastime; it’s a vital tool for emotional regulation, sensory development, and relationship building. Let’s take a deeper look at why play matters and how you can make the most of playtime with your child.
Why Play is Crucial for Sensory and Emotional Development
As a pediatric occupational therapy practice, we know that play is the most effective way children process sensory information and develop emotional intelligence. When children engage in sensory-rich play (think climbing, pushing, pulling, jumping, swinging), they are taking in sensory input from all of their sensory systems in each moment in time, integrating them all together and organizing their body to respond to various situations. They are not only calibrating their sensory systems, but they are also regulating their nervous systems and regulating their emotional responses. This type of play is crucial for children with sensory processing challenges, as it helps them develop the skills needed to respond to everyday stimuli in a manageable way.
But play doesn’t just involve the senses—it also plays a huge role in emotional development. When children engage in imaginative or cooperative play, they practice expressing their feelings, negotiating social interactions, and learning empathy. This is especially important for children with anxiety, sensory processing issues, or other emotional challenges.
Building Relationships Through Play
The importance of relationships cannot be overstated when it comes to play. Whether it’s through parent-child play or therapist-child interactions, relationships are the foundation of effective play-based learning. When parents or caregivers engage in play with their children, they provide a secure and supportive environmentwhere children feel safe to explore, learn, and grow. This bond not only strengthens the child’s emotional health but also fosters trust, making therapy and learning more effective.
PLAY using The Sensory-motor Emotional EngageMent Frame of Reference
We know that sensory-motor experiences play a significant role in a child’s daily life and emotional well-being. We also know a direct relationship exists between social, emotional, sensory, and movement-based challenges -the way we process sensations and move our bodies impacts the emotions we feel, and the way we sense, move, and feel impacts the way we act and interact with others and our environment. This dynamic interplay shapes our actions and interactions, defining what we call our Sensory Emotional Personalities™.
Using playful interactions, you can meet children in their sensory and emotional states and playfully interact with them to enhance emotion regulation, participation in day-to-day activities and events, and, ultimately, more joy in relationships.
The Sensory-motor Emotional EngageMent Frame of Reference
The Sensory-motor Emotional EngageMent Frame of Reference is an evidenced-based approach that uses play (or P.L.A.Y. within the model) to address both sensory-motor and social-emotional development using:
Playful Interactions: Through our research, specific play themes have been identified to enhance both sensory-motor and social-emotional capacities for each Sensory Emotional Personality™. In other words, there are specific ways to play with a child based on the way they process and respond to sensory-motor experiences.
Layered with Sensory Experiences: To support play in the themes, specific toys are recommended for each Sensory Emotional Personality™ style. Recommendations are also made for ways to use common items around your house to engage in sensory motor exploration of the play themes. These items are designed to provide many forms of sensory input—proprioceptive, vestibular, tactile, auditory, and visual. In conjunction with the play theme, the experience of sensory input is provided with the goals of enhancing sensory registration, sensory modulation, sensory discrimination, postural stability, postural control, motor planning, and motor coordination.
Affect Pairing: Just as play themes and sensory opportunities have been identified in our research as the ones to support each Sensory Emotional Personality™ best, so have affect strategies. One definition of affect is to move emotionally. Affective gesturing is the use of facial expressions, gestures, body positions, and tone of voice to send an emotional message to others. Within the Sensory-motor Emotional EngageMent Frame of Reference, while playing a specific play theme using specifically chosen sensory opportunities, we are also using specifically chosen affective gestures based on the child’s Sensory Emotional Personality™. These strategies are special ways of communicating and interacting with an individual to bring about regulation, engagement, and positive relationship experiences. For example, the use of exaggerated facial expressions along with big gestures brings a burst of awareness, connection, and engagement with our unaware yet deep thinkers who present with sensory under-responsivity. The use of anticipation, curious facial expressions with gestures inviting interest in what willhappen next leads to upright postural shifts and the co-occurring feeling of bravery within our needy yet compassionate children who present with postural weakness and instability.
You, the Power of You: You, the caregiver of your child, are a very important part of this model! As mentioned earlier, sensory-motor and social-emotional challenges immediately affect the relationships within a family. It is the learned responses based on the play, sensory, and affect strategies that are provided by the caregiver that bring carry over of this approach into the everyday life of the child and family.
Your response to your child builds meaning in their way of processing and responding to others and the environment. Therefore, there is a specific role that is recommended for you within each Sensory Emotional Personality style. This role combines the sensory, affect, and play-based strategies described above into a succinct way of being for you.
Exploration of the other Sensory Emotional Personalities™ within the family and how they impact the overall regulation, engagement, and relational health of the child and the whole family are of important consideration as well.
Here are some ideas for you—as caregivers or therapists—to get in the play zone with your kids!
Play Roles for Caregivers:
- Be the Playful Protector (for the Anxious yet Deeply Feeling SEP): Join your child as powerful superheroes, police, firefighters, knights –protect the people of the city or the kingdom from injury and harm.
- Be the Connector (for the Unaware yet Deep Thinking SEP): Engage in games with your child that foster feelings of connection and exploration, interest, and engagement. Play whole-body games like hide and seek, anticipation games, animal safaris, excursions, and treasure hunts.
- Be the Wondering Experimenter (for the Confused yet Full of Wonder SEP): Explore to experiment! Join your child to be scientists making concoctions, architects designing multiple buildings, or create your own life-size, whole -body video game with advancement levels.
- Be the Encouraging Supporter (for the Needy yet Compassionate SEP): Engage in games with your child that foster feelings of power and bravery, helping, and strength, like rescue missions as superheroes, rescuers, and doctors.
- Be the Organizer (for the Scattered yet Intentional and Passionate SEP): Engage in games that foster feelings of confidence and persistence as you and your child create movements and construct big plans, like acting the part of favorite characters in a show and building kingdoms or lands.
For more information or to determine your child’s Sensory Emotional Personality, click here.
When we observe the play of children, we are invited into their world of experiences. Play provides a place for exploration—with the body and the mind. Play offers a place of safety and connection. Play allows for opportunities to practice regulation of emotion and regulation of action, and behavior. By carrying out these emotional play themes through the use of intentional toys and affect, the child engages in experiences that simultaneously support both the sensory and emotional aspects of these dynamic profiles.
Check out our PLAY series on our podcast, A Sensory Emotional Lens! Tune in to our earlier episodes for ideas and inspiration:
07. A Sensory Emotional Lens on PLAY
08. Sensory Emotional PLAY
10. What’s Happening in PLAY (Part 1)
11. What’s Happening in PLAY (Part 2)
In addition, The Sensory Emotional Center of Learning is designed to bring our therapeutic model, the Sensory-motor Emotional EngageMent Frame of Reference, into your home. Through out, you’ll discover practical strategies and resources designed to enhance your understanding of sensory and emotional regulation in your children (and yourself). By understanding Sensory Emotional Personality Styles™, you’ll better understand a child’s strengths and weaknesses in sensory-motor and social-emotional development and, most importantly, ways to interact with them in both tricky and great times.
The benefits of play are vast and varied, touching on every aspect of a child’s development. As a
parent or caregiver, you have the power to foster growth through everyday activities. By prioritizing play, we not only help children develop important skills but also strengthen the emotional bonds that will support them throughout their lives.
So, take time to play—we promise you’ll have fun, and your child’s future self will thank you!
Did you like these tips? Check out our website for more informative blog posts and our Instagram and Facebook pages!
Founder and Creator of the Sensory Emotional Engagement Model
Michele Parkins, MS, OTR, is an Occupational Therapist specializing in working with children and families with Sensory Processing and Integration Disorders and challenges in social-emotional development. She is also a parent of two sensory kids. She works and lives sensational kids! Michele is a fellow of Dr. Lucy Jane Miller, OTR, and Sensory Treatment and Research Institute faculty.
Michele is passionate about working with families and other therapists and continues to do so as a clinician and educator. She educates therapists from all over the country and world and continues to provide consultation to schools on treatment for sensory processing disorder. Michele has co-authored a chapter in the 3rd edition of Sensory Integration: Theory and Practice, the textbook for sensory evaluation and treatment, alongside world-renowned pioneers in the field, and is currently writing a book to help support parents and families to understand better the impact of SPD on family dynamics and relationships and the day to day demands of life with sensory processing differences. Follow her on Facebook for updates and tips!
- Giving and Receiving Love in our own Sensory Emotional Ways - February 14, 2024
- 10 play-based motor planning activities - December 10, 2019
- 10 play-based vestibular activities - November 22, 2019
