Putting play in its place: presenting a continuum to decrease mental health referrals and increase purposeful play in classrooms

ABSTRACT

Recent shifts in elementary instruction over the past few decades have resulted in less play-based engagement in schools. Simultaneously, children are being referred for counseling or mental health services at startling rate. As members of elementary school leadership teams, counselors are often in a unique position to advocate for the best interests of children's overall well-being and to support school faculty in best meeting their needs. This article presents a Continuum of Play inclusive of play-based mental health services for children and instructional play approaches facilitated by classroom teachers. This continuum is intended to be a tool for school counselors to aid teachers in deciphering appropriate levels of developmentally appropriate, play-based classroom interventions with children who may present with academic or behavioral challenges before recommending a clinical therapeutic approach. We believe when children have more opportunities to engage in age-appropriate playful learning, the need for mental health supports may decrease.

KEYWORDS:

• School counselors
• purposeful play
• play therapy
• mental health
• child development

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr. Karyn Allee-Herndon earned her PhD at the University of Central Florida in Elementary Education, and she is an Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education at Mercer University’s Tift College of Education. Dr. Allee-Herndon’s research focuses on how poverty affects cognitive development, executive function and self-regulation as predictors of school readiness and achievement, and instructional strategies (including play) to reduce achievement gaps. Dr. Allee-Herndon has been published in International Journal of the Whole Child, The Reading Teacher, and Journal of Research in Childhood Education. She is a member of multiple professional organizations like the American Educational Research Association and National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Dr. Dalena Dillman Taylor is an Associate Professor at the University of Central Florida in the Department of Counselor Education & School Psychology/Counselor Education Program. She earned her doctoral degree in Counseling and completed her masters degree in Counseling from the University of North Texas. Dr. Dillman Taylor’s primary research interests include: advancement of Adlerian Play Therapy field towards evidence-based practice; counseling and educational services for high need children and families; and counselor development and supervision.

Dr. Sherron Killingsworth Roberts the Robert N. Heintzelman Literature Scholar and a professor of language arts and literacy in the School of Teacher Education in the College of Community Innovation and Education at University of Central Florida. Published in Reading Teacher, Journal of Teacher Education, Journal of Research in Childhood Education, Journal of Adult and Adolescent Literacy, Journal of Poetry Therapy, and Reading Horizons among others, her research considers literacy as social practice, content analyses of children’s literature, and innovative pedagogy in teacher education, such as technological applications, literature study groups, and writing circles. Additionally, she continues to explore the uses of poetry as a reservoir for qualitative analyses, for therapy, and for creating a peaceful classroom.

ORCID

Karyn A. Allee-Herndon https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0764-4792

Sherron Killingsworth Roberts http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1340-4333