Providing developmentally appropriate representational play opportunities following the Greenspan model can often be frustrating when working with children who had difficulty progressing past the gestural level. It is very difficult for a child to get to higher levels of representational play without some ability to use language. Yet many children can not organize language for play given a 32-grid overlay on a device or are initially overwhelmed by even an 8 grid device with changing comments. The following information is excerpted from the manual that accompanies The Birthday Party Playmat. It will provide example scripts and the rationale for playmats.
Many children also have great difficulty with the motor planning required as a foundation for play.
Children may need to be taught how to use various toys or else they will twiddle them or wander aimlessly without interacting purposefully with the toys in any representational way. For other children, physical limitations are more systemic and they need maximum support in their choice making in order to play at all. Play is the most important work of all children, not just those with the inherent ability to do so successfully. The toys look like one undifferentiated mass and they often make no choice unless led to one. The large props serve to make beginning choices in a play scenario more obvious.