Play therapy: ‘Children come out the other side having found their glitter, their sparkle’

Play therapy to support children experiencing “significant levels of trauma” must be mainstreamed across Deis primary schools, principals in the some of the most disadvantaged areas of Dublin and Limerick are warning.

Disproportionate levels of homelessness, crime, addiction and mental ill-health in their communities are causing children heightened anxiety, tiredness, sadness, anger and worry, leaving them less able to engage academically than their more privileged peers, principals in Moyross and South Hill in Limerick and Ballymun in Dublin have warned.

A key focus of the new Child Poverty Unit, announced last month by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, must be tackling educational disadvantage, they said.

Of “paramount importance” will be “tackling trauma”, says Tiernan O’Neill, principal of Corpus Christi national school in Moyross. He has recently been seconded as social regeneration co-ordinator on the Limerick regeneration project.

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“If we are serious about maximising life opportunities for these children and reducing levels of educational underachievement, the promotion of social and emotional competencies is of paramount importance,” he said

“This idea that children can park their psychological baggage at the gate of school and engage with academia – that’s not how real life works and if you look at the scale of social ills within some of the [most deprived] communities, it is very important we look not alone at academic competency but we look at the social emotional competencies.”

Play therapy, where children can express and process emotions through such media as imaginary characters, art, sand, slime and music, has been provided at Corpus Christi for over a decade, benefiting “well over 250 children,” said Mr O’Neill.

[ Play therapy case study: ‘If he hadn’t got the help, where would he be now?’ ]

You see the difference in the classroom for the children who access it ... We have to find a way to have these services year round

—  Tiernan O’Neill, principal of Corpus Christi national school in Moyross

Funded by the Department of Housing and Limerick City and County Council, through the Limerick Regeneration Plan, it has achieved a “transformation in the school landscape in terms of behaviours, attendance, retention, how the children perceive themselves”, according to Mr O’Neill.

“It is powerful, powerful, powerful work that is having a lasting impact on the communities,” he said.

Already provided to 36 children in seven of the 11 primary schools in Ballymun, play therapy will be offered across all 11 from September 2023, said Roisin Hickey, principal of Our Lady of Victories Boys’ National School and chair of the Ballymun schools’ network.

[ Play therapy to tackle trauma will be offered in Ballymun primary schools next year ]

While 300 children, out of a total local primary-school population of 2,000, were identified recently as in need of play-therapy, principals now believe this is a “conservative” figure. Of these 250 are, or have been, homeless.

Play therapist in Ballymun, Niamh Mullins, explains: “A child won’t directly tell you what they’re upset about but they’ll work through it. Play is their way of expressing themselves and they will play out things that have happened in their lives – maybe it’s trauma, difficulty at home.. they will use the toys, the puppets and sand to express their feelings.

“There’s a quote that I love: ‘It’s only in your darkest times you find your glitter’. And I see children come out the other side of play therapy having found their glitter, their sparkle and the essence of who they are again.”

The impact on the few children who have received play therapy has been “transformative” not only for them, but for their classes, families, and communities also, as their outlook and demeanour improves, said Ms Hickey. She echoes others in arguing schools are ideal locations, at the heart of the child’s world, to locate play therapy.

The scheme there is funded on an ad hoc basis, with funding ‘parcels’ from groups including Tusla, the DAA which runs Dublin Airport, and, Dublin City Council.

Le Cheile national school in South Hill, Limerick has secured funding to employ a therapist, currently working one day a week, full-time from February to June 2023.

“She is available all year round if I had the money to pay her,” said deputy principal Shane Donoghue. He estimates up to 35 per cent of the 200 children would benefit if the school could afford her. “You see the difference in the classroom for the children who access it. They are calmer, happier within themselves and can sit in the classroom longer. On the days they have the play therapy they are looking forward to coming in. Parents see improvement in child’s demeanour and that impacts the parents’ wellbeing. We have to find a way to have these services year round.”

Currently the schools have to make multiple applications, filling in numerous forms, to private and public agencies to fund play therapy. They argue it must be mainstreamed for all Deis schools – particularly in the most disadvantaged “band 1″ category

“It should not be relying on funding that could be gone next year,” said Mr O’Neill. “When you look at the level of disadvantage we are talking about, this should be a fundamental part of the landscape in all Deis band 1 schools.”

Asked about funding play therapy throughout the Deis network, neither the Department of Education nor Tusla directly addressed the question. The Department cited its funding of the National Educational Psychological Service and its Wellbeing Policy and Framework, which “has multiple components that include providing children and young people with opportunities to build core social and emotional skills and competencies, experience supportive relationships within the school setting”.

Tusla said it was developing a three-year plan to provide trauma-related assessment and intervention for children and young people in care. It funded counselling services and counselling in schools where there were “unexpected or traumatic events”.