Upcoming Events

Applying ESDM to Play Therapy Approaches including Children with Developmental Delays

Date: October 12, 2024, 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM

Location: Raising Harts, 1130 Washington Street, Unit 2, Hanover, MA 02339

Speaker: Dr. Jennifer Epstein

Play therapy is instrumental in meeting the needs of children facing mental health issues by providing a safe place to explore difficult stressors and experiences through the medium of play. During this process, the relationship between child and therapist is fostered and nurtured. For young children, development across various skill areas can be uneven, and this can impact the skills and techniques needed for play therapy to be effective as well as the relationship development between child and therapist. This is particularly true if the child demonstrates atypical development or developmental delay. The Early Start Denver Model, (ESDM) is a naturalistic developmental behavioral intervention model which uses play as a medium to fuse aspects of developmental psychology, applied behavior analysis and relationship-oriented approaches to autism intervention. It has been specifically designed for use with young children with autism ages 12 to 60 months of age. The teaching techniques of ESDM can be used to successfully support development of neurotypical and neurodiverse children and it can be implemented as part of individual or group intervention programs. By exploring the use of ESDM teaching techniques, play therapists can expand their skill set in optimizing developmentally appropriate play therapy intervention for a broader range of children.  This workshop will also include the application of strategies from ESDM and Help is in Your Hands to Filial Therapy and Child-Parent Relationship Therapy.