When a child is quiet and shy, there may be a lot of factors in play as to what causes them to be more withdrawn. Most children do not have the understanding or vocabulary to express themselves directly as to what they are feeling and experiencing. In this case, play therapy can be an effective tool in aiding healing and getting quiet kids out of their shells.
Play therapy is a play-based approach that creates a positive environment for children to express themselves and develop coping skills.
What is Play Therapy?
Play therapy is a form of counselling that is primarily used with children. It involves using play and creative expression to help express their feelings. Play therapy capitalises on the children’s natural urge to explore and helps communicate their thoughts and emotions in a safe environment.
The therapist uses a wide variety of materials, such as games, toys, art supplies and puppets, with which the children can talk about their experiences without actually talking about them. Through play, the kids can work through their difficult emotions, learn coping skills, build confidence, and improve self-esteem.
Play therapy is used to address a number of issues, including:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Trauma
- Academic Difficulties
- Grief
- Trauma
- Neglect
- Low Self-Confidence
- Behavioural Issues
Play therapy can be successful for shy or quiet children because it is all about bringing out the child’s strengths rather than their weaknesses.
The Challenges For Quiet Kids
Some kids are simply more outgoing and social than others. Shy or quiet kids may prefer to spend time in smaller groups and with people they know and feel more comfortable with. This can be fine for some kids as long as it doesn’t become problematic.
However, some quiet kids can experience social isolation due to being withdrawn from others. They may have trouble making new friends and may find meeting new people or entering unfamiliar situations scary and anxiety provoking.
These emotions are tough for young children to go through, and they likely do not know why they’re feeling that way, as it is difficult for children to vocalise these thoughts and feelings.
As a result, many avoid these anxiety causing social situations and this can result in them missing out on some of the fun kid activities that all children should have a chance to experience.
Play Therapy & Building Confidence
One of the many benefits of play therapy is that it helps build self-confidence and self-esteem, especially in quiet kids. Through various play therapy techniques, children can learn to overcome their fears and develop a stronger sense of self-worth.
When children enact situations through play, they start building up their social skills. For a shy or quiet child who may have concerns in this area, this helps to build social confidence.
Play Therapy also assists with helping quiet kids to feel stronger by distancing them from situations or social interactions that may seem worrying to them. They can play out the things that scare them, like new social situations or meeting new people, which in turn lessens the impact of real-life situations.
That means that by playing out situations rather than experiencing them first-hand, children learn critical skills and start to feel more confident and empowered to tackle real-life scenarios.
Building trust and rapport with the Play Therapist also helps to bring quiet kids out of their shells. The Play Therapist will help the child to express the fears and anxieties they may have around socialising, and this will help to start healing and kickstart the process of working through these difficult emotions for the child.
Play Therapists – Moorabbin & Yarraville
If you are a parent trying to help your quiet kid build confidence, play therapy can help. Contact us at CoRe Kids Therapy. We are a Play Therapy and Child Counselling practice based in Moorabbin and Yarraville in Melbourne. Our Play Therapists can help your child come out of their shell and work to build confidence.