ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role of play and the importance of playfulness for children’s development. It outlines how knowledge and research regarding the constructs informs therapeutic work with children and young people. The chapter focuses on research into perceptions of play and enabling playfulness and discusses how this might be utilised in order to become a playful therapist. It describes a wide range of play literature from various disciplines to demonstrate that it is the playful relationship which provides the power to heal. Early educational and developmental theorists such as Froebel and Pestalozzi both emphasised the importance of playful activity for learning. E. H. Erikson also valued play, and playfulness, as means to overcoming traumatic events and provided a developmental framework for play and self-esteem. There is limited research on children’s views of play, however it has been shown that children use cues to differentiate play from non-play activities.
