Dyad Sessions

Initially, children’s dyad sessions can seem quite chaotic if you are a person looking in from the outside. However, during this time, children are finding their feet and themselves within the dyad.

Children may seem very withdrawn and want to sit on their parent’s lap and observe or very excited and move around all over the place. These are both ways that children explore their surroundings and therapists are trained to support children to regulate themselves and become more socially aware of the other child, then to start interacting with them.

Sometimes we are simply focusing on helping the child to be able to stay in the room with another child. They may engage in parallel play or solitary play while briefly looking at the other child and not engaging with them.

Over time, and with practice in individual sessions, the children will start to approach each other and then therapists support each of them to engage with the other child.

All our therapists are trained to support children’s development in dyad sessions. They also receive regular mentoring from therapists both inside and outside of the organisation. We specialise in supporting children’s social-emotional development and communication through relationships.

Our Development Through Play therapist is also an Early Childhood Educator with many years of experience working in kindergartens across South Australia and the United Kingdom.

As a multidisciplinary team, the therapists work together during dyad sessions while supporting the children individually. They share their expertise and knowledge with each other, both by formally mentoring others and informally through daily planning and discussion.

Children often interact and behave differently with adults than they do with other children. Children will learn to communicate and extend their vocabulary, comprehension and play skills with individually supported dyad sessions. Children learn to communicate with other children, which is a foundation skill for attending other children’s programs and education settings in the community.

We have supported many dyad sessions and will not match children who cannot learn from each other. Sometimes, it feels to the parents the children are very different, however, this is something the child may need to learn. For example, a child may need to learn to be more assertive when playing with toys or to be more compassionate. They can learn this from each other with the right support.

They may also be at different levels of play development which is usually the case in the various environments children will be attending. This is where the therapists will support the child to recognise, acknowledge, begin to comprehend and develop adaptability to work with others and their learning styles.

 You can read more about the different types and stages of play here.

Often parents sit out of dyad sessions and therapists share small video clips (with parent permission) with parents after the sessions to explain what was worked on and achieved. However, if children are very young and cannot be without a parent in the session, then we encourage parents to either sit at a visual distance or in the session but not participate in the session. Sometimes parents find it hard to sit on their hands or just observe, especially when they see their child struggling. Children often come to their parents to support their regulation, then with the proper support from the therapists, they will be able to start to grow their confidence to stand on their own two feet and stay in the room, seeking less
co-regulation from the parent and eventually even be curious enough to join in the play with the other child.

Sometimes, while children are ready to start playing in a dyad session, parents are not ready. It is important to communicate with us if you feel that dyads are not helping your child or if you feel uncomfortable.

Just trust the process and trust the therapist. Always share your concerns, but also understand this is not like child care, kindergarten or school. This is a therapeutic process where therapists have matched your child with the other child to work on skills your child may still be developing so they feel more confident when with other children in the community.

Therapists set boundaries and are very aware of your child’s triggers and ways of communicating. They ensure everyone is safe in the dyad sessions. Naming and choosing the right equipment and material for dyad play sessions is crucial. Children will not be asked or expected to share initially because developmentally they may not be ready for this. Again, just trust the process.

The cost is the same as for an individual session because each child is supported by their own therapist.

We give it about 4-5 sessions to see if we have matched correctly.

We always have another room available and the children can then be separated into separate rooms for individual therapy to continue talking about their new friend and what happened.

Yes! Sometimes we pair children only the last 10 minutes of their individual session for a play outside together or they are able to visit each other’s rooms with the permission of the other child.

At My Therapy House^®, we have COVID safe practices in place to minimise the risk of cross-infection and contamination for all our clients. We require Covid vaccination for adults, as well as for children over 5 years of age so that they are able to participate in dyad sessions safely.