You're listening to the Play Therapy Podcast with Dr.

Brenna Hicks, your source for centered and focused play therapy coaching.

Hi, I'm Dr.

Brenna Hicks, The Kid Counselor.

This is the Play Therapy Podcast where you get a master class in child-centered play therapy and practical support and application for your work with children and their families.

In today's episode, I am answering two questions from Mikaela in Illinois.

And one is about costumes and puppets in the playroom.

And then one is how to respond when a child is narrating or role playing with characters, figurines, etc.

how we direct our dialogue.

So, two really helpful questions.

So, let me read parts of each of those and then we'll tackle them together.

I wanted your thoughts on what you would consider to be the bare bone essential costumes and puppets for a playroom.

I need to be mindful of how much space I take up as I work with all ages in my office.

Related aside, thank you for throwing out my phrase to me.

My supervisor told me today that I take up the most space per square feet of stuff out of all the therapists in our practice.

As a designated play therapist enthusiast, I took it in stride, I would as well.

That said, I don't have the space capacity for a giant puppet stand or costume chest in my office, and I've definitely been creative with storage for costumes.

I'm also mindful about things like lice with having too many hats or fabric things, and I've been trying to think about alternatives like headbands, face masks, accessories like wands, capes, etc.

These are also smaller and easier to store.

For puppets.

I've discovered there are large hand puppets, smaller silicone rubber ones, or tiny finger puppets.

Do you think there's a big difference in what size puppets you have in a room, or do you focus more on themes, making sure to have aggressive, safe animals or diverse people?

All right, so let's pause on that question and then we'll tackle the next one.

I, it's interesting that this came up because the week of Halloween, I actually did a theme in the Collective on our call about costumes in the playroom.

So, I realized I've never talked about it on the podcast.

So, Mikaela, I appreciate this.

All right.

The costumes are really important for the real-life category of toys.

And therapists that do not have costumes in their playrooms, they're missing a large chunk of the real-life category.

So, I think it's very important that you have costume-related items.

Some of the things that I suggested when we did that collective call is to not think about it in terms of costumes as much as items that can be Used to become something else.

In other words, you don't need an entire costume per se of a superhero.

But you might need Captain America's shield and or an Iron Man mask and or Hulk gloves.

Where the child can become that other persona without having to put a head to toe costume on.

Costumes are prohibitive because they are sized.

So individual pieces make it far easier for a child to play out what they need to without having to say it's too small, it's too big, etc.

And you also want to think about limiting the number of character-driven costumes that you have.

You do want to have a couple of superhero options in there, but the bulk of your accessories and costumes, you want them to be real life options.

So, military, firefighter, police officer, doctor, veterinarian, teacher, professional that goes to work.

Then you also want to have some fantasy-driven options.

So, fairies, mermaids, butterflies, dragons, knights.

Those kinds of things and and the goal is that the child can come in and quote, put on.

Literally and figuratively, another persona.

And that's part of the self-actualization process.

Because when I become a doctor, I become a rescuer, I become a hero, I become a fixer.

When I become Captain America, I become a force for good and justice.

When I become Hulk, I'm strong and I can destroy things.

And essentially what happens is the child is able to experience what it feels like to be someone other than who they are, and that ideal versus actual kicks in.

Related aside, no pun intended, if you're going to do this in a comprehensive way, costumes also need to have a mirror.

Because it's very important for a child to be able to see themselves while they are someone else.

So they need to see their reflection as stronger, faster, smarter, braver, more capable, whatever the scenario is.

And mirrors are very important to have with costumes and dress up items.

And then my final thought as far as your space concerns, there are several options.

You do not want kids to have to rifle through bins to find dress up items.

So your best bet is 3M hooks that you can put on the wall and buy children's hangers and hang up your items, and they can hang in, you know, 3 or 4 hangers together on a hook.

On one of your walls and you can display quite a few of your dress up items that way.

Another option is a small clothing rack, and then everything can be hung and displayed because there's hooks down the side as well as the top bar where you can hang things.

And that allows for kids to be able to see everything that they want to play.

And the helmets, the masks, the hats, all of that can be down the sides and on the bottom shelf.

And then the actual garments can be hung up.

That's really important.

Keep in mind that the dress up items do not have to be.

An entire outfit.

In other words, you can get swatches of fabric, you can get tulle, you can get scarves.

There are all kinds of things that will be used in dress up, and it's not particularly an entire costume, and it's not even related to a specific outcome.

It's just one of my therapists, I watched one of her videos a couple of weeks ago.

And she found at a thrift store a sequin gown, and she cut the sleeves and the neck off, and then it just became a long piece of blue sequin-y fabric.

And the girl used it as part of a pageant, and it was this really creative, cool session, but it wasn't a dress anymore.

It was just the blue sequin fabric because it had been cut.

So things like that are really useful in dress up segments of the playroom.

OK.

Oh, and to speak to your point about hats and lice and fabric, as much as possible, try to have plastic things that go on the heads.

So masks and hats that are plastic.

So helmets, you know, a fire helmet, a night helmet, a plastic police hat.

Those are the ways that you can get around the concern of lice and then you can spray them down with microband after they're used.

All right, so let's move on to the second question.

When kids choose animal or characters as a medium for their play, do you reflect through the lenses of those mediums?

For example, would you focus on the shark being the one who is emoting and making choices, or do you keep your focus on the child's choices for the shark and how they feel?

I tend to think along the lines of, if I focus on the character, then I'm stepping into the play world of the child.

If I focus on the child, I'm externalizing but focusing on the experience of the child.

I don't think either is more valuable than the other, as they're both valuable and both can happen at once, but I'm curious to know what you gravitate toward and why, because hashtaghey matters.

Indeed it does.

Related aside, #2.

We are planning an in-person event in January, so the last weekend of January in Tampa.

So, if you would like to escape your cold weather environment and come hang out with me in pretty and warm Florida in January, Just make a note.

You may want to start planning for that, and we are going to have some CCPT phrases on things at the conference.

And so, I'm sure the why matters will make an appearance there.

All right, so, your rule of thumb for a scenario like this.

is to speak.

In dialogue to what is happening.

So, the child will give you first or third person reference more often than not.

In other words, if the child is grabbing the army figurine.

And is saying, and now I'm going to go over here, and now I have to go lead the battalion, and now I'm going to order the troops to do whatever.

OK, it's the army figurine, but Child has made it first person.

It's very clear that that's an archetypal play.

And therefore you're going to say you, because the child has referred to the army figurine as I.

So, in that scenario, you're going to say, you're going to order the troops, you're commanding the battalion, you're making sure things get done, because the child indicated it was first person.

If the child picks up the army figurine and is just moving it and Doing things and or saying he or it.

Then you're going to follow suit.

So if the child keeps it in third person or does not indicate first person, then you're absolutely going to say, oh, and now he's going over there, and now he's doing that, now he's commanding the troops.

You're always going to follow what the child has given you, and the child will usually make it very clear if they are using it as themselves.

And so to speak to your question of if I focus on the character that I'm stepping into the play world of the child.

Unless the child specifically says I.

You're always going to refer to what's happening as the character.

So he or she or it or they.

And You know, they, they, there's can be this very extensive narration going on, you know.

There's the, the town and the earthquake that came in, and then the rescuers show up, and then there's like this bad guy that's trying to get involved and everything.

It's always going to be, oh, now they're here.

The, the ambulance and the fire truck showed up.

Oh, but they're over there trying to make sure that the house is still intact, and, oh, he went to go tell the so and so.

Always 3rd person until a child refers to themselves in 1st person as a character.

We know now that that 1st person shift is very deep and significant.

And we're going to then say you.

Even if it's a character or a figure or something representing the child.

So, we always are just going to make sure that we are aware, default to third person, and every once in a while, if the child is actually playing first person and just hasn't declared it, and you say, oh, he's doing that, he'll say, no, I'm doing that.

And then you just say, oh, you're going to go do that.

And then you continue with that role instead.

So, they're very quick to correct you if you're not fully on target, and then you just are going to assume that that can be consistent throughout the rest of the play.

All right.

So, Michaela, thank you so much for the questions.

I hope that that's helpful for all of you.

I would love to hear from you all if you would like to ask questions or just send a greeting, brenna@thekidcounselor.com.

Stay tuned for lots of updates.

We're getting close to the end of the year, so we're unrolling a whole bunch of things.

So, make sure that you're not fast forwarding and skipping the beginning or the end of the podcast, as I know you all are prone to do, because when I did the meetup, I, on one of my pop quizzes, I said, what's the intro to the podcast?

And everyone was like, Oh, I skipped past that part.

See, you don't want to do that because you never know what's going to be at the beginning and the end of the episodes, y'all.

Sometimes golden nuggets show up and you skipped right past it.

So just, you know, PSA to my peeps.

I just don't want you to miss stuff.

Love y'all.

We'll talk again soon.

Bye.

Thank you for listening to the Play Therapy Podcast with Dr.

Brenna Hicks.

For more episodes and resources, please go to www.playtherapypodcast.com.