Play

I was blaming one of my kids for his foot odor problem. It literally brought tears to my eyes. But I realized it was me too. I probably contributed to the smell.
So anyways,
I realized that I should really bring play into therapy, instead if using a toy and having them manipulate them a certain way to achieve their goals. My first victim today screamed and ran away from me as soon I saw him in the playground. I chased after him cornering him and allowing him to "play" and test me. I allowed him to have some fun but then I changed my tone of voice, looked real serious to indicate its time to play at the therapy gym. He agreed.."whew"- and off we went. Usually I have a toy, position it a certain way and make him do something with it, but today, I decided to have some fun. I used my imagination and used a big red piggy bank, pet it like it was real, and said lets feed it with coins. After that I pretended that the pig need to go to the bathroom and need help to pull the cork out from the bottom of the belly. The kid looked at me like I was crazy, but he loved it. So literally, I was playing with him..making the session go by smoothly and quickly..and actually fun.
After taking "I" back to his classroom, I thought of what my peds professor said about letting go and allowing yourself to play during therapy. So I guess this is what she meant.