The purpose of play at Naomi House & Jacksplace
Play is an important part of everyday life at our hospices and one of the many ways we support the children and young adults we care for. Play is not only about having fun, but it also aids both physical and educational development, social interaction, pain management, communication and exercise.
But what is play and how does it benefit the people we care for? We spoke to Claire, Play and Activities Team Leader at Naomi House & Jacksplace, who explained some of the key benefits of play.
Why is play important?
Play helps us all communicate and interact. It’s about self-expression, emotions and imagination. The children and young adults who use our hospice services have a range of different needs and abilities. Whether a child or young adult is verbal or non-verbal, play allows them to communicate in their own way.
Play can be tailored to each child or young adult’s individual needs to support wellbeing and pain management or provide distractions that will help them with the daily challenges they face.
Having fun and new experiences
As a team, we start each day wanting to make a positive difference to someone’s life. We do this by creating opportunities for fun and making memories.
Play can help alleviate anxiety and stress and can provide a distraction from the many challenges facing children and young adults, as well as their families.
We offer different experiences by creating activities which cater to all our senses (touch, smell, taste, sound, sight). If a child can’t eat or taste, they might be able to use their sense of smell, so we arrange a variety of activities that will stimulate the senses and make each activity enjoyable.
Our teams come together to make each day as fun and vibrant as possible. If we are running a music session, everyone joins in – nurses, carers and activities team.
For example, let’s take painting a picture. We can help create a piece of art which might be bright and colourful. We can put different spices and smells in the paint so that whilst the child or young adult is creating the painting it enhances that sensory experience. Throughout the process, we’re also using touch, which can be both therapeutic and relaxing.
Experimenting with food is another activity that we include. There are children and young adults who can’t or don’t wish to eat orally but they can still experiment with the textures and the smells and even create a piece of art with it. By making the contact with food fun, we are allowing them to experience it in a positive way.
Communication
All of our play activities encourage communication. When we work on a piece of art together, we will say the colours and textures and describe whether it is cold or wet. This builds on vocabulary, communication and helps develop cognitive skills.
A child or young adult who doesn’t communicate verbally might respond in their own way to prompts. They might use their tongue or make a particular sound to say yes. We get to know the children and young adults who visit Naomi House & Jacksplace, so we learn how they communicate, for example, we might know whether it is a “yes” or a “no” from where they are looking. Or we might offer something that means red for no or green for yes and they would tap on it or look at it.
Giving children and young adults the opportunity to communicate in their own way and to be involved is vital. For example, in a music session, one of the young children we care for seeks out vibration, so we will strum the guitar for her so she can feel that vibration. She was unsure about joining in the music session at first but once she started to feel the vibration of the instrument, she became part of the session.
It is important to enable each child or young adult to be a part of an activity in a way that they can best receive it.
Socialisation
Being social is very important for nurturing wellbeing and confidence. Being with others helps develop skills to manage anxiety and navigate the world around us. There might be a social situation that a child or young adult would usually find very uncomfortable, but with the right support the experience can be re-framed as more positive and received in a way that they find more comfortable. To socialise is an opportunity for some of the children and young adults to be able to share how they feel and perhaps talk about things that they can’t talk about with their family or school friends. At Naomi House & Jacksplace, children and young adults can meet up with people who have similar experiences.
It is also important for family members to share experiences with their child with the other barriers of home life removed. Coming to the hospices and knowing that for those few days, they don’t need to consider when their numerous medications or feeds need to be given is a weight lifted. All their child’s care needs are managed by our care team. The family can simply take part in a game or an activity, have fun and learn new things about each other.
How lovely to be able to sit and enjoy doing a piece of artwork with your child without having to plan it and set it up because someone in our activities team has done it for you. More often than not you will be doing the activity within a group, so you will be socialising with other families and children.
When young adults visit Jacksplace, they can socialise, play games, have fun and just be themselves. They are in a safe environment and able to chat with their friends and staff about any worries or concerns they might have, perhaps if someone’s health is deteriorating, or it could simply be that they have some new equipment to talk about.
We will put some music on and make a bit of a young person’s hub in Jacksplace. The young adults enjoy playing board games and Uno seems to be a favourite. Some might be less cognitively able, and might have a carer playing for them, but they will be communicating with them, and will all be part of the same group with the laughter and the fun and enjoying the social aspect of it.
Using play and activities to support physical health and mobility
When the children and young adults are in the hydrotherapy pool, their bodies are free and there isn’t the limitation that there is with a wheelchair. There might be exercises that on solid ground might be uncomfortable, but the support of the water enables them the freedom to move. We can use water toys, splashing, music and sensory lights to make exercises a fun and enjoyable experience. For example, they might be stretching out their arms to reach for a toy.
Our physiotherapists work with children and young adults in the hydrotherapy pool focusing on their arms and legs while I am doing something to distract them. I was recently supporting a young lady in the pool and playing with a pot that had holes in it. We were splashing the water, and she was absolutely loving it. She was reaching for the pot and therefore exercising in a fun way.
We can use play and activities to encourage exercises that would have little meaning or enjoyment on their own, but by reading a story with the book placed appropriately we were able to encourage a young boy to lift his head and help strengthen his muscles. He was so engaged with the book that was being read to him that he was holding his head up to see it. We have the appropriate equipment to ensure that he was supported, and he was then independently able to hold his head up whilst enjoying the story that was being read to him.
One of the young boys we care for needs to move independently as much as possible as he is in a wheelchair much of the time. We try to encourage him to use his arms to strengthen his muscles. I found a squishy ball and gently threw it to him, which he couldn’t help but reach up to catch. He enjoyed reaching for the ball but also having me dive to catch it wherever he flicked it. He was laughing and having fun, while he was stretching out his arms to throw the ball.
Tailoring Needs
Each child and young adult have their own personal care plan that the families will discuss with the carers and nurses on each admission, which includes an assessment for play and leisure.
We continue to learn more about each person and about their preferences and interests as we spend time with them and become completely immersed in each situation with them. We build a picture of the activities they enjoy and things that can be developed. We want them to have many different experiences and so will adapt the environment to suit their needs.
For example, we might have a music session and within that group we need to consider whether a child might be sensitive to sounds or they might not particularly enjoy music, we can adjust the session so that they enjoy it more.
We are always aware of changing needs, medication, sensory triggers and the change in need for different types of experiences.
Making Choices
Many of our activities involve messy play which engages multiple senses, encourages responses and reactions. For example, I was clapping my hands which were covered in shaving foam and one young adult was responding so beautifully, she loved it and was able to indicate that she wanted more. This gave her the opportunity to make a choice.
So much in the lives of the children and young adults we care for must be directed or within a routine, but with play, they can be supported to take charge and make choices.
We give young adults the opportunity to have new experiences and make independent decisions that might not be possible at home. Through play and activities, we enable choices to be made even if the child or young adult doesn’t realise it and we are giving them a chance to direct their life while their care needs are being met.
Play is about offering activities that each child and young adult can enjoy, making their day purposeful and happy whilst discreetly supporting their medical needs.
The Importance of Play
Discover the importance of play at Naomi House & Jacksplace in this short film, featuring our interview with Claire, created in collaboration with Together for Short Lives.
