Wright Therapy for Kids

02/03/2026

02/03/2026

02/03/2026

Why should we celebrate International Play Therapy Week?

02/03/2026

🧸Children are always communicating — even when they don’t have the words.

Before children can explain fear, grief, anger, or confusion, they show us their inner world through play.

In play therapy, toys, art, and imagination become a child’s voice.

When we slow down and truly observe play, we begin to understand what children are telling us about their emotions, experiences, and needs.

✨ During International Play Therapy Week, we celebrate play as more than fun — it is one of the most powerful forms of communication available to children.

👉 Read more about how play therapy helps children feel seen, heard, and understood in our latest blog.

In play therapy, toys, art materials, and imaginative scenarios become the child’s voice.

02/01/2026

✨🌍 It’s here! International Play Therapy Week is officially kicking off! 🧸🎉

This week we’re celebrating the power of play — where feelings get expressed, confidence grows, and healing happens in ways words alone can’t. 💛

Follow along as we highlight how play helps kids feel seen, safe, and supported… all while having a little fun along the way! 🖍️🧩

01/31/2026

If you’ve ever been told your child “should be able to calm themselves by now”, this matters.

Decades of developmental research show that emotional regulation is not something children learn alone. It is built, slowly and repeatedly, through co-regulation with a safe adult. Before the brain can self-soothe, it needs to experience being soothed. This isn’t permissive parenting — it’s how nervous systems develop.

Studies on parent–child synchrony, the Still-Face paradigm, and social biofeedback consistently show the same thing: regulation is social before it becomes internal. Children borrow calm, learn meaning, and gradually build the capacity to regulate themselves through relationship. Co-regulation isn’t a parenting trend — it’s the cornerstone of emotional development.

Research references (evidence-based)
Ruth Feldman – Bio-behavioural synchrony research demonstrating that attuned caregiver–child interactions predict later self-regulation and emotional competence (Feldman, 2003; 2012).
Edward Tronick – Mutual Regulation Model and Still-Face paradigm showing that infants rely on caregiver responsiveness to regulate distress before self-regulation emerges.
György Gergely & Watson – Social biofeedback model explaining how contingent adult responses teach children to understand and regulate internal emotional states.
Murray et al. (2019) – Applied developmental model positioning co-regulation as a core mechanism through which self-regulation develops across childhood.
Bornstein et al. (2023) – Reviews framing co-regulation as a multilevel biological and relational process foundational to emotional regulation.

01/27/2026

01/27/2026

If you are a parent searching for answers about your child’s learning, attention, or behavior, you are not alone. Many families reach out after months or even years of wondering why school feels harder than it should, why progress feels inconsistent, or why their child seems capable, but continues...

01/19/2026

01/19/2026

01/19/2026

Heavy work is easy to incorporate into play activities! These are calming sensory activities to use for the proprioceptive benefits: https://www.theottoolbox.com/proprioception-sensory-activities/

01/14/2026