30: Selecting Toys and Tools
Note: Play Therapy Across the Lifespan is created to be heard. If you are able, we strongly encourage you to listen to the audio so that you are able to appreciate the emotion and emphasis that cannot be captured by text alone. Transcripts may contain errors and differ slightly from the audio. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting it in print.
Resources and Links:
The Art of the Relationship by Garry Landreth: https://www.amazon.com/Play-Therapy-Book
Advanced Play Therapy by Dee Ray: https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Play-Therapy
Prologue and Introduction
This is the fourth episode this season as we talk about playroom essentials, and we are just now getting to the toys. First, we considered the space you have and how to define it. Then, we looked at practically setting up that space. Last time, I suggested five tips for funding your playroom, and now we are going to talk about how to select the toys and tools for your play space.
Garry Landreth says that toys and materials should be selected, not collected. He describes three categories of toys, and that’s a good start for a playroom that has the tools needed for therapeutic work. His categories are real-life, aggressive release, and creative expression, and when you are selecting toys, you want to make sure that you some from each category. I’ve got some suggestions to help you do that and another interview with Dr. Kasie Lee with her suggestions.
This is Episode 30: Selecting Toys and Tools
This is the fun part. The toys! There are so many great things to gather. Your clients will love this… and this… oh, and this. Hold on. Just because it is a toy doesn’t mean that it belongs in your playroom. And just because it could be therapeutic doesn’t mean that your client needs it to do their work. Toy clutter is still clutter. You want enough tools for your clients to be able to do their work, but not so much that it becomes too much.
More is sometimes too much. Lean towards simplicity and not over-stimulation. You can add more later if you need them. A mobile bag or printer paper box will hold all you really need. If you have an office space, naturally, you could have more, but be cautious about over-filling your space. One of my students doing a practice session in a playroom described it as an explosion of toys. That’s too much.
Let’s go back to Garry Landreth’s three categories of toys. For the client to have the tools needed to do their work, you need some from each category… and sometimes toys can cross categories. Think about what your clients experience in their lives. Maybe they have siblings, pets, carpools, or soccer practice. These days they wear masks, have virtual school, and see other people through a screen. They know They know that money buys groceries, pays bills, causes stress, and those that have it have more power. They may be helping with meal prep and housekeeping. You want toys that represent real-life and where they can play out their personal experiences, some every day and some traumatic. So, you need toys that represent families, transportation, eating, buying, school, and living in a pandemic. You don’t need every possible toy, but you do need things that clients can adapt for their lives. It could be a family of raccoons, or a mixed-species family from an assortment of animal toys, but you need toys that can be family. The family needs to be able to go places (transportation), eat, spend, learn, and any other things that are part of life for your population. These may be some of the toys that your client needs for nurturing play or play for safety and security themes.
Your clients also need toys and tools to express big emotions. Dr. Landreth called these aggressive release toys. With children, they may also include big movements like swinging a plastic sword, chasing you with a snake, or jumping off a stool with a loud “A-ha!” Weapons and toys that capture are important for playing out empowerment and control themes. If you work in a school, you’ll need to follow your school’s policy, since some have a no-tolerance policy for weapons, even toys, but toy guns aren’t your only option here. Balls that can be thrown, a jump rope for capturing and tying up, creepy spiders, intimidating monsters, and ninja action figures all provide options for big emotions and power.
His third category is creative expression. Children are so imaginative that they can make what they need for real-life or aggressive release with creative materials. But this category also provides another way to play using that right brain that experiences emotions. You can include art, music sand, puppets, dress-up, and other expressive art materials. Blocks are nice here, too, and they can be used for a lot more than building.
If you work with older clients using play therapy, the expressive arts you include will allow the client to be creative, nurturing, and feel big emotion. This category will serve the function of real-life and aggressive-release but in a less juvenile way.
If you incorporate expressive arts (art, music, sand, writing, photography, movement, drama, etc.) you will need materials for that. I suggest you limit your space to only 1 or 2 expressive arts. Maybe your dream space will have entire rooms dedicated to different expressive arts, but if you only have room, don’t try to cram it with everything.
I’m curious what Kasie will include as her must-haves in a playroom. Join me for that conversation next.
Interview with Dr. Kasie Lee
[The interview portion of this episode was not transcribed. To listen to the interview click the episode link at the top of the page.]
Conclusion
What I hope you learned today is to be intentional in how you curate your toys and materials for the playroom. Make sure you have some real-life, some aggressive release, and some creative expression toys. Start with less and add as you go.
I try to be informative here, but I love to learn, too. I got some new ideas from talking with Kasie. What did you learn?
We often think of toys as fun, but fun isn’t one of the criteria when selecting them. Sometimes, the work your client is doing isn’t fun at all. It’s hard, it’s scary, and the future is unknown. But that is why the client has you. You provide the safe space that gives a client the courage to talk to an abuser while “playing” in your office. You surround a child with unconditional positive regard when swinging a weapon and saying the unmentionable. You give the client permission to be vulnerable and authentic because you are genuine. And that is how you facilitate healing. You are so important. What you do matters, and play therapy gives clients the tools to do very hard work. I’m so glad that you are honing your knowledge and skills to help them. Thanks for joining me on this podcast today.
