I work as an assistant practitioner in a health visiting team in west Wales and often refer to my work as “the fun stuff”. But using play to aid communication has a such a positive impact.
I recently worked with a family whose relative had been killed in a farm accident. One of the family members – a young child – saw the accident happen and although I wouldn’t usually carry out a play visit with someone her age, it was important the whole family was supported so I worked with her, alongside her siblings.
It’s important to use Welsh if that’s the client’s first language as they think in Welsh
As we played together, we talked about emotions and feelings so they could relax enough to say how they felt. They needed help to understand their feelings and know it was OK to feel sad. To do this I used emojis and we chatted in Welsh as it was their first language.
It’s important to use Welsh if that’s the client’s first language as they think in Welsh. It makes them feel more comfortable and it’s much easier to communicate and provide a fairer service. I also do a lot of work around developing speech and language so I’m glad to be able to work in Welsh or English to do this.
I usually work with children up to the age of five and no play visit is ever the same. What I do depends on the child’s and family’s needs. Play is essential for children because it helps develop their language and social skills. It helps them learn.
In some cases, I can ensure children get the play time they need if a parent has mental health challenges. This also gives the parent support as they get a few minutes to themselves.
If I’m working with children with autism, play visits are spread out over six to eight weeks. We need this time to play and encourage language skills. While I’m there I can read the cues from children and give mum and dad tips on what to do.
It’s frustrating when a parent doesn’t see the importance of play, but this can happen, especially if they’d never been shown it as a child themselves.
I use Snakes and Ladders a lot. It’s extremely useful but some children just don’t know how to play it because they’ve never been taught how. This may be because parents simply can’t afford to buy toys or in some cases the parents hadn’t been shown how to play it when they were younger.
I used it with a family of three young children whose mum had left after a significant difficult event. The dad needed some support to help him cope so I went in to play and help rebuild them as a family, showing them all how a game can bring a family together.
The COVID legacy
The face-to-face nature of my role meant that the pandemic had a substantial impact on what I did. I wasn’t able to work in the community because I have asthma, but I was determined to continue to support families however I could. I phoned new mums weekly to check in with them.
My own mum recorded me in my garden on a lovely day in the spring, singing songs and telling stories. When my team saw this, we set up a closed Facebook group for our clients to help maintain the connection with families and to keep people together safely.
In Welsh and English, I demonstrated craft activities, expressing key public health messages, songs and stories, and gave parents the chance to ask questions for me to take back to the team.
I play a significant role in healthy family development
It was so successful we decided to keep it going. Now, after face-to-face sessions, we upload useful information so it’s there as a resource for clients to refer to. This is important as babies born between February and April 2020 missed groups, social visits, parents going for a coffee, so right now we’re doing more speech and language play visits than ever.
It’s all too easy to forget about the work nursing support workers do in health visiting teams but I play a significant role in maintaining healthy family development.
Further information
- Betsan was recognised at the RCN Wales awards 2021. Find out more.
- Read the RCN publication: How To Safely Support and Promote Play Within Health Care Settings.
