179 | Freedom to Be Loud: The Significance of Loud Play in Child-Centered Play Therapy

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You're listening to the Play Therapy Podcast with Dr. Brenna Hicks.

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Your source for centered and focused play therapy coaching.

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Hi, I'm Dr. Brenna Hicks, The Kid Counselor.

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This is the Play Therapy Podcast where you get

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a master class in child-centered Play therapy

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and practical support and application for your

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work with children and their families.

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In today's episode. I am answer answering a listener question from Beth in Maryland

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and she is curious about when kids use toys to

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make themselves sound louder. So I'll actually dive into that in just a moment.

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I think there's a lot of clinical implications for play like that.

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So I'm glad Beth that you emailed in

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and before I dive into that, I have

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a state of the

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CCPT

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world address. I don't know.

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I want to celebrate something with you. It's a huge milestone

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for those of you in the Collective, you probably saw that we posted about it.

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But for those of you who have not joined the

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Collective and you are just one of my listeners.

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I wanted to celebrate something huge.

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Last week, we hit the 300,000 download mark for the Play Therapy Podcast.

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So in only 100 and 70 or so episodes,

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we have 300,000 plus downloads

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all over the world. So a huge thank you to every single one of you

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that tells me that you all not only binge listen,

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which means you listen to every single episode,

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but it also means that you all are so highly invested

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and so highly committed in this model and in this career.

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And thank you for trusting me and allowing me to be a part of your training and your

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progress in this field.

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I honestly, I was so blown away that we hit the 300,000 downloads, so

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huge. Thank you to each and every one of you. You know how deeply I appreciate you.

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I can't do what I do if you all don't want to hear it. So

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thank you for taking me with you wherever you go

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throughout the week and listening to every episode faithfully,

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I actually need to tell you another sweet story.

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One of my participants in the coaching program because

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we were on vacation a couple weeks back.

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We didn't get the podcast out on Tuesday and Thursday and many

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of you are probably like furiously nodding your head right now.

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Like, yes, I know

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you all are so committed and so invested

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in the Tuesday and Thursday episode release.

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She said Brenna, I was actually worried about you.

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Like, I almost reached out and asked if you were ok because

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when the Tuesday podcast didn't drop, I was like, oh,

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no she always puts a podcast out and

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it was just so kind and thoughtful and so thank you

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that you all are so invested and committed to this podcast.

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It's really such an honor to,

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to do this,

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to put CCPT out into the world and have people care and soak it

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up and invest in becoming the best child centered play therapist that you can be

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so huge hug. Thank you all so much. I'm literally virtually hugging you right now

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and I'm really grateful to you also hope you feel and sense that because it's true.

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All right. So let's get back to be question.

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So her question is,

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can you talk a little bit about when kids use microphones, instrument, toys,

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noises and toys that

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allow them to copy sounds and words in session?

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It seems like they want to be heard. Can you possibly elaborate?

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So

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it's so fascinating to watch a child use

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things in the play session

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that allow them to magnify their voices.

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So it sounds like Beth what you're describing a microphone, instruments,

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noise making toys, et cetera.

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That is a very unique subset of toys within the categories in the playroom.

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And my first thought is

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that

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kids when they do that,

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it's a means to an end for control. So what I mean by that is often

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when kids, for example, we have megaphones, you mentioned microphones,

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but at my center, we have megaphones

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and

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we often see that they will yell into the megaphone. We also have,

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it's technically for the cheerleading outfit,

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but it's one of those cone shaped things that the cheerleaders use.

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I don't even know what you call that, but

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the cone shaped thing that cheerleaders yell into to magnify themselves.

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So we have megaphones, we have that cone shaped thing. We have

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toys that they will often use as microphones

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and then instruments that allow them to be very loud as well. Kazoos, harmonicas,

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little trumpet type of things, recorders, et cetera.

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So when you think about their desire for power and for dominance,

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you can see why they would use those because it gives them a feeling of control

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over you and or the playroom

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so often it's associated with power

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and control because they're actually dominating

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the session

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with making themselves as loud as possible.

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And you'll usually see that in kids that are either highly deregulated

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or kids that

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are really needing to exert that big level of power and control.

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So that's one thought that I had. The second is

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I often see it as well in children who

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really relish the freedom

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that a playroom affords them.

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And what I mean by that is

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where

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else can a child

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be that loud?

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Where else can a child yell at the top of their lungs?

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Where else can a child say things and have it magnified

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to sound even louder?

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They don't really have any environment like that.

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So the playroom gives them that freedom.

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And many times there's almost

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wonder and awe if you will

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when the child is like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I can be this loud.

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Sometimes they even hesitate to continue. So they go really loud with something.

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They yell, they scream, they talk into the

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megaphone, they do something like that

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and then they look at you for a reaction is usually what happens.

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And then second of all, they'll comment on how loud it was

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like, oh my gosh, that was so loud.

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And then you can see them weighing whether or not they want to do it again.

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And sometimes they will choose not to because

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they stop themselves because they don't feel ready,

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willing or able to really be that uninhibited.

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But sometimes it's like,

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oh, well, you didn't seem to care. So here we go. And then it's even louder.

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The second time

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I've had kids plug their own ears

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because they were so loud, but they continued to do it.

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So they didn't even like how loud they were,

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but they needed that outlet because there,

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there's freedom that they don't get in other environments.

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So I think that's a second consideration. And then the third

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is I've noticed that they will often do it for emphasis in their play.

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So for example, they will yell into the megaphone or yell into the microphone or

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use the kazoo very loudly, the whistle very loudly, the harmonica very loudly

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and it's almost always wrapped up

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in some kind of alert

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or

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announcement of danger or peril or they're ordering people to do

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something because of what's going to happen in their play.

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So many times kids will say

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danger, danger or there's a fire or evacuate, evacuate or take cover.

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So you can see how, when you need to make a really big announcement

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in your play,

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you would want your voice to be as loud as possible to reach the most ears.

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So often

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they will use those types of toys when they're really trying to emphasize

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whatever it is that needs to be said.

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So if they are really angry

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at one of the characters in their play and they want to yell at them,

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if there's any kind of peril danger concern, they will use it in that capacity,

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they will use it to order around like if they are the army general, for example,

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they will use it to order around their soldiers

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because they really want to make sure that everyone understands the expectations.

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So I think there are multiple reasons why children do it.

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But in all of those scenarios, there's so much significance there

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because whether it's for power and control,

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whether it's because of the freedom or whether it's for emphasis,

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they're not able to do that really in any other context

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in their lives.

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So the playroom once again,

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remember we go back to,

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it's predicated on the power of the relationship

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and the special, unique environment.

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So

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that special, unique environment

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allows them to do things that

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they know is unique

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and

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not something that they are allowed to do otherwise.

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So when their play warrants it,

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they're able to take advantage of those toys,

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which is why we have them in there for that very reason

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because

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often kids are silent in their play

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and we know that when they choose to be silent, there's reason for that as well.

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When they choose to be loud, there's reason for that.

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So Beth, thank you so much for the email. I hope that you all find that helpful.

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And next time your kids are using a toy in one of those contexts,

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I hope you can whittle it down and determine what you

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think is driving that behavior because as always the why matters,

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right?

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All right, y'all, if you want to reach out to me, I'd love to hear from you,

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brenna@thekidcounselor.com.

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And if you are interested at all in upcoming trainings

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and, or on demand trainings that I've already done,

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please visit www.childcenteredtraining.com

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and that will give you access to all of the CoreWell

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courses that I've completed.

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We are actively working to launch at the end of the summer or maybe early September,

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a complete program in facilitating CPRT

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with

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CoreWell.

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So if you have any desire whatsoever to

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offer CPRT child parent relationship training

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as a service in your practice and your work with children and their families.

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We're going to create a 15 to 20 hour

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comprehensive course

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that will train you to facilitate those groups,

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train you to offer that curriculum to parents

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and you on the end of completing all of those CEU hours.

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Not only do you get credit for either RPT or just for your

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license,

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but you will also get a certification through

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CoreWell that you have been comprehensively trained to offer CPRT.

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So I'm super excited about that.

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We've been putting that together the last few months and

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we're kind of getting ready to wrap that up.

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So,

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looking forward to offering that to you all as well,

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but www.childcenteredtraining.com is where you can get access to

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the pre-recorded on demand courses that are already complete there.

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We're going to have some new ones in the fall as well, new ones in 2025.

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So hang on y'all.

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I'm trying to give you as much credit for CCPT and

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CPRT training as possible because I know CEUs are important.

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So

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we're,

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we're doing what we can from our end to make sure

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that CoreWell is able to get you credit for that stuff.

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All right, love you all so much. Have a great week. We'll talk again soon. Bye.

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Thank you for listening to the Play Therapy Podcast

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with Dr. Brenna Hicks for more episodes and resources.

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Please go to www.playtherapypodcast.com.