You can celebrate the importance of inclusive play on Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day (May 10, 2018) and throughout the year!
Find out why you should make play an important part of your family's day.
Watch a video
- Using this template, collect children’s drawings of their favorite play and email pracdept@aota.org with a subject line “Play Drawing.” We will create a Gallery Wall of drawings at the AOTA Children and Youth Specialty Conference in Milwaukee in September 2018.
- Help AOTA collect practice stories that demonstrate occupational therapy’s value in building inclusive play. Use this template to describe your story and then and email pracdept@aota.org with a subject line “Play Story.” Let’s review some of the stories at the Gallery Wall and also during a “Conversations That Matter” session at AOTA Conference 2019.
- Listen to this pediatric podcast (available in April), which shares the lived experiences of family and youth regarding the value of play. The podcast also reviews the value of occupational therapy to increase play participation.
- Start a conversation about the importance of play! Share this video (available in April 2018) with your families and other consumers. Refer to related AOTA resources about inclusion and play such as the AOTA toy checklist, the inclusion infographic, an early childhood inclusion trifold, and a school information sheet on inclusion.
More Resources for occupational therapy practitioners about play: