Play That Builds Skills and Bonds Us (with Dr. Tina Payne Bryson)
Apr 1, 2025
auto_awesome
Dr. Tina Payne Bryson, an expert in child development and co-author of bestsellers like The Whole Brain Child, delves into the transformative power of play in parenting. She emphasizes how engaging in child-led play fosters emotional regulation, self-confidence, and social skills. During their discussion, they share practical strategies for guiding children's play without taking control and address how play can help manage aggressive behaviors in young kids. Listeners gain insights on integrating meaningful play into daily routines to strengthen bonds and emotional understanding.
Engaging in child-led play fosters emotional exploration and development of essential skills like resilience and self-regulation.
Parents are encouraged to create a safe space for emotional expression, helping children navigate difficult behaviors through understanding rather than punishment.
Deep dives
The Importance of Play in Child Development
Play is a fundamental aspect of child development that facilitates emotional processing and skill building. The podcast highlights how play can be used as a therapeutic tool, helping children to navigate their feelings and develop self-regulation. Through child-led play, children can portray various scenarios, allowing them to experiment with emotions such as fear or control in a safe environment. The discussion emphasizes that play is not simply a leisure activity but an essential means of connecting with children and understanding their inner worlds.
Parent-Child Play Dynamics
Engaging in parent-child play provides a unique opportunity for bonding and shared learning experiences. The podcast discusses the balance between allowing children to lead in play while also guiding them through emotional narratives and boundaries. By following a child's lead during play, parents can support emotional exploration and resilience, helping children develop essential interpersonal skills. Furthermore, practical strategies are provided for parents to join in play actively without dominating it, thus enhancing connection and understanding.
Navigating Challenging Behaviors
The podcast addresses common challenges parents face when dealing with aggressive or difficult behaviors exhibited by their children. It emphasizes the need for patience and understanding, recognizing that such behaviors often stem from emotional overload or shifts in their environment. By providing a safe space for children to express their emotions, parents can help their children process feelings without imposing punitive measures. This approach fosters a supportive relationship where children feel accepted and understood, allowing for healthier emotional expression.
Building Resilience Through Connection
The discussion highlights the significance of building resilience in children through meaningful connections and positive interactions. Strategies are presented for enhancing bonding, including playful engagement and allowing children to express their emotions authentically. The podcast suggests that parents can help children navigate frustrations and difficulties by modeling emotional regulation and offering open communication about feelings. By maintaining a focus on connection, parents can empower their children to develop coping strategies that will benefit them throughout their lives.
Janet’s guest is Dr. Tina Payne Bryson. Her new book “The Way of Play” (co-authored with play therapist Georgie Wisen-Vincent) illustrates how playing with our kids in a receptive manner for even just a few minutes each day helps us to better understand them, while also encouraging their development of social skills, emotional regulation, resilience, and self-confidence. The guidelines Tina and Georgie offer in "The Way of Play" help make connecting through play easy, natural, and fun as well as richly effective for learning and bonding. As Tina explains, "The temptation can be to take over the play or be too instructive or didactic, to think we need to teach all kinds of lessons. But what's really powerful, as we follow our child's lead, is to be able to dive into their world." Janet and Tina do their own deep dive into all of these topics and more. Then they both respond to a letter from a parent struggling with her 4-year-old’s aggressive behaviors.
Learn more about Janet's "No Bad Kids Master Course" at: NoBadKidsCourse.com.
Please support our sponsors and take advantage of their special offers.