2021 | Person-to-person 2025 - playscape

WHY DOES IT MATTER

Between balancing schedules, financing school and childcare, arranging playdates, attending after-school activities, providing transportation, and ensuring your child’s general health and safety, co-parenting can be an endlessly stressful responsibility. The demanding nature of parenting often begins to negatively impact parent’s relationship with one another - to their child’s detriment. For children of parents who are separated and share custody, the rift between parents tends to cause even more developmental problems as they grow.

This program aims to help parents navigate the co-parenting relationship. It will cater to both traditional and non-traditional parenting arrangements. No matter the arrangement, parent’s interpersonal relationship and the support they show for each other throughout parenthood will ultimately go on to impact their young children's development. This project aims to mitigate the possibility for misunderstanding and conflict by helping parents focus on their shared interest of providing a nurturing and stable environment for their child/children.

WHO DOES IT HELP

The program is aimed at parents of young children who are experiencing high-conflict co-parenting relationships. This includes married and separated couples, as well as non-traditional parental figures.

WHEN IS IT USED

Playscape is to be consulted when instances of inter-personal conflict have begun to negatively affect parents’ ability to co-parent their children.

HOW DOES IT WORK

Playscape helps parents create a healthy foundation for co-operative parenting through play.

There will be an on-site location which offers in-person child-centered therapy. The site would provide childcare for young kids which serves as both a convenience and gentle reminder to the parents that they are here for their child/children. Co-parenting therapy sessions take place in a separate space. Here, licensed therapists make each party feel heard, ensure they have the tools to work through disagreements, and ultimately help them find comfortable balance in this area of their relationship.

In the second half of the session, the child/children are incorporated into the therapeutic process through play-centered activities and exercises where the group works as a team to accomplish tasks and solve problems. Framed as games to excite and engage their little ones, they will be guided through physical, mental, and creative challenges that not only enrich the child’s development but strengthen cooperation between parents as they become united in the goal of helping their child/children understand and excel at the task.

WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE

1. As the physical component of the program, I will be designing and producing a series of developmental co-operative games and activities in a “recipe card” format. Each card will include the name of the game/activity, the rules of the game, materials needed, and a simple illustration when helpful. The flipside of the card will specify the purpose and benefits of the game as it relates to both child development and strengthening the co-parenting relationship. The cards will be coded to indicate how long the activities are projected to take and what element of child development they address. I will design both the cards themselves and the box they come in, as it will be a theoretical product that families can purchase if they wish to continue conducting these games and activities from home or an otherwise communal space.

   Alternatively or additionally, Playscape’s on-site location could be booked by parents who are separated and would benefit from sharing quality time with their child and fellow parent in a neutral space. I could see this being very useful as it is often awkward or impractical to expect separated individuals, especially those with pre-existing relationship conflict, to spend time in each other’s homes. This would allow them to utilize all of the many tools, materials, toys, and games in leading their own Playscape activities with their child/children.

2. As the digital component of the program, there will be a companion app which reformats the “recipe card” gimmick into organized sets of vertical activity cards with the same reversible quality as the physical sets. The cards will be quick and easy to swipe through, with app navigation allowing you to narrow your search by co-parenting skill, developmental skill, time needed, perceived cost of materials, etc.

   Alternatively, there could be a companion app that allows a smoother co-parenting experience by providing tools for scheduling school and after-school events, specifying individual availability, prompting recurring check-ins from the children (for separated parents with shared custody), dividing out costs for school and childcare expenses, etc. so that parents can worry less about logistics and focus more on developing a healthy and sustainable emotional relationship. The purpose here is to introduce organization into the often stressful co-parenting responsibilities that can create excessive tension. This way, therapy can focus on facilitating communication regarding more complex, emotional concerns within the co-parenting relationship.

EXAMPLE CARDS

A Star Is Born
(45 minutes)
Create your own short 3-minute play - allowing your child/children to create and cast you as the stars of the show. Help them develop a plot with a beginning, middle, and end and a title that ties it all together. Invite them to select costumes, props, and a proper backdrop to flesh out the story. Let them come up with silly lines, write or type up scripts, then get ready to put on a show – and don’t be afraid to put some gusto into your performance! You can put on the show just for them, or invite family and friends to watch their creation come to life.

My Favorite Things
(30 minutes)
This fun game targets all 5 senses – touch, taste, smell, sight, and sound. Give them a bag or basket and instruct your little one(s) to search the house and bring back items which represent their favorite things in each category. Give them a list with each sense written out, followed by 3 blank spaces for them to fill in with the names of their items. For those overwhelmed or in need of a little extra help, accompany them on their hunt for items fitting each category, and work with them to write out the words after finding each one. This sensory activity encourages them to think about their 5 senses, keep track of an ordered list, and motivates them by giving them the opportunity to share or remind you of all the things they love!

Paint By Feelings
(1 hour)
It’s time to get abstract – challenge your little one(s) to paint a series of 5 small abstract artworks to express how they feel about the people, places, and things in their life. If they are having trouble thinking and creating abstractly, allow them to paint something which reminds them of the person/place/thing they are depicting. Don’t be afraid to let them get messy with it, mixing paints and using unconventional tools to create interesting textures and colors. Be sure to dress them in “junk clothes” and prepare your art space accordingly with newspapers or a tarp. Give them freedom to do their thing while you work on your own pieces depicting the same selected subjects. Then, do a show and tell about your creations and what they mean to you. Give them positive reinforcement and offer to hang their work somewhere in the house. Possible topics: mom, dad, siblings, grandparents, pets, school, home, sports, after-school activities, school subjects, etc.

Recipe For Success
(1 hour+)
Select a kid-friendly recipe to create from scratch – we suggest chocolate-chip cookies, banana bread, pizza, chicken noodle soup, or macaroni and cheese! Be sure to try something with varied and measured ingredients. Write or print out a list of ingredients and simplified instructions, and walk them through the cooking process from start to finish. Invite them to measure out the ingredients, and don’t be afraid if they go a little over or under. Instruct them to delineate grown-up tasks to you, like pre-heating the oven or stirring on the stove-top. When your culinary creation is complete, it’s time for a taste test! Encourage them to describe the outcome by asking questions about the taste, texture, and their overall satisfaction with the result. What did they like about it? Dislike about it? What do they wish it had more or less of? Help them to isolate which ingredients or behaviors created which effect on the taste and texture of the final product. (I.e. if the macaroni and cheese was too soupy, what might we use more or less of to improve it? If the cookies were too hard and crunchy, what should we change about the instructions next time?) Most importantly, repeat the process at a later date with tweaks based on their conclusions about the original recipe. Soon enough they’ll have created a perfect recipe that’s all their own!

Face It
(15 minutes)
It’s time to practice your acting chops – take turns acting out strong emotions using just your faces. Think happy, sad, scared, angry, disgusted, relaxed, surprise, etc. Once they’ve guessed the emotion, write out the word on a flashcard in big, bold letters. Have your child read out each word, then flip the card over and ask them to think of and write down some past experiences that have made them feel that way. Once they’ve completed the activity, share some of your own experiences and which emotion they made you feel.