My Love for Stuffed Toys and Play Therapy

Photo by Dan/Freedigitalphotos.

When I was a little girl, I did not like to play with dolls. My sister would continually nag me to play Barbie dolls with her, to which I reluctantly give in. My sister's bed was overflowing with stuffed toys. Mine was just a few pillows and a neglected pink stuffed toy pushed to the very end of the bed. Perhaps it was because I was a very obedient daughter. My mom didn't want me to sleep beside dolls, for she believed that the fibers from the dolls might give me respiratory diseases.

Anyway, now that I'm a grown-up, I realized how much I love dolls after all. Whenever I see stuffed toys at the stores with my twin sister, I would go near those little people/animals and cuddle them. I would also play with the toys as if they were puppets and mimic a little child's voice speaking to my twin. (Of course, I have to make sure that no one's looking other than my twin or else he/she would think I'm crazy! LoL!)

My playing pretense always amazes my twin. She said that I could be a puppeteer. Whenever we buy items from souvenir shops, she would ask me to play them as puppets while I hide under the bed so she could watch a funny show.

Not only my twin is the person who find my role playing through toys amusing, but also my younger relatives. I rarely meet some of the kids of our relatives, so whenever I do, they feel very shy to approach me. However, when I see stuffed toys around the corner, I grab them and say hello. Most of the time, my technique didn't fail me to amuse them and get their attention. As I continue to talk to them through the stuffed toys, they would finally feel at home with me.

Does it sound strange? Not really. In psychology, toys are actually used as a technique in therapy (called play therapy). Children, especially very young ones, are yet to learn how to express their feelings. Indeed, when they encounter stressful situations, they find it difficult to express their emotions through words. Sadly, some children find the wrong way to deal with the situation - such as throwing tantrums or misbehaving to get attention. We adults should try to decipher what they want to say. Of course, their misbehavior should be discouraged, and instead they should be taught to express themselves in a healthy manner.

Young children with traumatic experiences need to express their emotions. Child psychologists would find techniques such as play therapy very handy when it comes to reaching out to these children. In fact, children would find toys less intimidating as compared to facing an adult. Using a toy is one technique that will help the child express himself/herself as compared to speaking face to face with an adult.

So, as a message to all the parents, children are children. Don't expect a young child to be able to express himself/herself right away. We all had been there, and so it is important that we should be patient in dealing with them. Most importantly, we should know how to reach out to them, so when problems arise, we'll know how to address to these difficulties.