Program Overview
A loving and secure bond between babies and parents leads to lifelong benefits for both parent and child.
FirstPlay® is an infant play therapy approach that promotes joyful interaction between parent and child. This highly effective model has the ability to transform an insecure parental attachment into a secure one by teaching parents meaningful ways to connect with their babies with respect, love, and fun. The FirstPlay® model pairs storytelling with gentle infant massage following a specific story/script and routine. A Certified FirstPlay® Practitioner shows the parent how to perform the routine using a doll — while modeling engagement, gentle touch, and playful interaction —side by side with the parent(s) and baby.
FirstPlay® enhances the relationship between parent and child by offering gentle guidance and modeling positive interactions between parent and infant, teaching them how to connect, listen, and respond to their baby’s cues.
In addition to the emotional and psychological benefits, FirstPlay® supports babies’ neurological and physical development and has a positive impact on literacy. FirstPlay® also acknowledges the babies’ personhood in a loving way that reinforces concepts of personal boundaries and respectful touch.
Investment
The cost of serving one family through FirstPlay® for one year is $750. This investment provides parents a thorough foundation and training in the modality through a rich, interactive curriculum that is spread over several weeks of the therapeutic process. By the end of FirstPlay®, parents share that they feel closer to their babies, are better able to read their babies’ cues, and feel an increased enjoyment of playful time spent with their babies than before the intervention.
Family crisis, stress, depression, and other challenges can jeopardize healthy parent/infant bonding and attachment which is critical to the baby’s cognitive and emotional health and development. Insecure attachment in infancy can have lifelong detrimental effects.
Parents have the capacity to reclaim essential attachment and bonding. Through the positive, joyful interactions of FirstPlay® with their babies, insecure attachments transform into healthy, loving bonds. When parents feel more bonded to their babies, and experience the joy of the bond returned back to them, they are more responsive to their babies’ needs and more confident as parents and caregivers. Babies who receive this attuned care grow to be healthy, well-adjusted and confident children. FirstPlay® is provided at no cost to families.