Three Stages of Play - EPR

Children develop through play, it is how they learn to form and develop relationships with their environment and people in their environment, it is how they learn about who they are in themselves.  There are three core stages in Developmental Play and these are commonly referred to as EPR or Embodiment Play, Projective Play and Role Play, which occur in a particular sequence and each is of particular value to a child's development in that they cannot proceed to the next stage without having fully negotiated the first one.

Embodiment Play is essential to developing a sense of trust and is the first of these stages in Developmental Play...babies learn to trust in a physical way, not through words.  If babies needs are met in the first years they are in a strong position going forward, it is much more difficult to develop a sense of trust later on than it is to reconnect again with their earlier sense of trust.

In essence this Embodiment Stage of Play is about learning and integrating that sense of having a body and having skin.  The young child learns "I have a body; This is what my body can do; This is where my body ends".  It is essential that children learn to develop this sense of self as opposed to understanding themselves with/through others.  This stage of play centers around a sensory exploration by the infant of their environment and those in it!

Where there have been gaps in the early attachment cycle and/or these stages of developmental play have not been negotiated we may see a child coping at a projective level of play but the healing will involve a return to where the need is.  In therapy, a traumatised/attachment disordered child will begin to heal and return to the 'nesting' or Embodiment Level to re-negotiate through this stage in a healthier way that allows them to progress onto the next stage because we need to have this sense of self and trust in order to progress onwards.

Projective Play is the next stage and follows on from the stage of Embodiment Play.  This stage involves an increased focus on stories and narrations to further explore and investigate objects, people and their general environment at a deeper level.

We must hold in mind the fact that children have less external influences as their life experience is more limited, therefore what they 'tell' us is very likely to be something that is still very active in their lives.  During the Embodiment stage the child is learning how to find a way to contain their emotions, how to read cues and then to realise that that emotions are their feelings but are not THEM!  Without developing this sense of self they are less likely to be able to negotiate into and through Projective Play, i.e. they are not ready to read their feelings!

Note: We cannot be held responsible for how we feel BUT we do need to find and be responsible for finding a way to express how we feel that does not hurt ourselves or others...it is very important that children are given and understand this message

What has been introjected before, in the previous stage, is now what is projected by the child in their behaviours.  Where there are difficulties a qualified therapist will work to give the child a new introject that they can incorporate into their projected play.

Dramatic play, whereby the child uses play to re-structure and/or re-arrange aspects of their life events to gain a better understanding of themselves and their world occurs in the final stage of Developmental Play, Role Play Stage.

There will be aspects of the first stage of embodiment play evident in both Projective and Role Play stages.  The therapist working with the child must be adequately trained and skilled to spot these signs and measure where the child is at developmentally and where the gaps are.  It is very normal for all children to temporarily regress to this first stage or employ aspects of sensory and embodiment play during the later stages, we should not pathologise everything the child does and this is why it is very important to understand what is 'normal' and what may indicate a  developmental or attachment delay/gap.  Where gaps exist and where there is evidence of a developmental delay the therapist will use specific play based interventions aimed at supporting developmental growth and returning the child to their normal and healthy developmental path.

Children presenting with attachment disorder, oppositional defiance disorder, conduct disorder, ADD/ADHD, Autism, Aspergers, Personality Disorder etc will all experience a deficit in this developmental functioning as a result of the limit their condition imposes.  The therapeutic goal with these children, who are often coming to the attention of services and professionals because they are acting out in a variety of challenging behaviours or displaying emotional and/or social impairments, is always to assist the child back to the highest possible level of developmental functioning, sometimes this will be to the highest level of functioning possible given their existing limitations as opposed to what is considered age appropriate for them.

If a child has not been able to negotiate the embodiment and projective play stages they will be incapable of empathy.  It is important that this is addressed appropriately to allow the child to heal, grow and develop into a healthy and rounded individual.

In my work and in addition to the above, I am using play to observe the child and ascertain where they are at now, to develop a means of communicating and connecting with the child and to enable the child to express how they are feeling.  Play, in the therapeutic setting, is a means for the child to gain and express mastery of themselves, their world and their experiences.  The concept of "Repetition Compulsion" is always running concurrently, seen in the child's tendency to repeat the same play over and over again or the same themes, and this compulsion is an attempt to gain control over their internal world again, particularly if something traumatic has happened in their lives.  Play is a means of connecting with the healthy parts of the child and enables the therapist to develop a positive therapeutic alliance that in turn allows trust to develop and the work of processing and repairing to begin. This is always at the core of our work in Solamh - Parent Child Relationship Clinic and guides and informs our treatment plans.

You can read more about our work on www.solamh.com or call us on 01-6976568 for further information about the work we do