ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Tackling concerns from kids about returning to class during the pandemic is a tough assignment for parents. 

“Let’s help kids feel heard,” said certified child-parent relationship therapist and UCF associate professor Dalena Dillman-Taylor.

That is a goal she works to achieve as the director of UCF’s Center for Play Therapy Training and Research. She said “play” is a child’s language and the toys are their words.

“We want to provide an opportunity for children to show us what they’re thinking, feeling, what’s going on with them, maybe what they are struggling with, and we do that by providing a variety of toys they can utilize to play out some of those situations,” she said.

Dillman-Taylor says it’s important to create stability at home and get kids on a regular sleep schedule.

“We want to start having some predictability consistency in our child’s life," she said. "That is something that is going to be more critical going into this school year with so many unknowns with so much angst about what that looks like.”

Parents should also be aware that angst among adults over divisive issues such as mask wearing may be mirrored by students. 

“Kids are really really great observers but poor interpreters, and so what that means is a lot of times they are paying attention to our own stress level, our own fears,” she said.

Whether it’s through words or play therapy, communication is a critical foundation.

“Anytime we can balance a positive or negative in our questions, they’re able to kind of work through it, know that I can hold both emotions at the same time,” Dillman-Taylor said.

The Community Counseling and Research Center at UCF offers free family counseling sessions including play therapy.