Your home or school
Any, IL 00000
United States
In this workshop, participants will develop an understanding how early experience, particularly adversity, influences children’s social-emotional development. Preventive strategies, including; structuring the child’s routine, the use of descriptive praise, the importance of control in relation to challenging behavior, and the influence of supportive and attuned adult relationships will be explored. Play-based strategies that support children’s social-emotional learning will be shared, including; identifying the child’s feelings, choice giving through play, and how to set limits with children using choices and natural consequences through video examples, experiential exercises, and group discussion.
Christian Bellissimo is a play therapist who has maintained a private practice for more than 20 years, where he specializes in working with children between the ages of 3-8. He has been contracted with New Jersey’s Child Protective Services for more than 15 years, for whom he has treated the youngest victims of trauma, abuse, and neglect. Christian also served as a Preschool Intervention Specialist for a public school district in New Jersey for more than 19 years. In 2016, he published Universal Play Therapy: A Guide for Supporting Young Children’s Development. The manual has served as a framework for coaching parents, foster parents, and teachers in how to use play to support children’s emotional growth. Christian maintains that the skills he utilizes as a play therapist should not be relegated to a therapeutic context and should be shared with early childhood educators and caregivers. To support this endeavor, he has created Play to Grow, an online community that helps teachers and parents use play to support children’s social-emotional learning.