06/18/2026
🚨 What if your child’s way of playing isn’t “wrong”—just different?
Today, I had a conversation that really made me stop and think.
A behavior technician shared that one of our mutual patients enjoys banging blocks together. She explained that they were working on “functional play” because they didn’t view this as an appropriate way to play with blocks and wanted to teach him the “right” way to use them.
But that raises an important question:
🤔 Who decides what the “right” way to play is?
From a neurodiversity-affirming perspective, play is play.
Play can look like building a tower. It can look like lining up toys, spinning wheels, sorting objects by color, pretending, exploring, or yes—even banging blocks together.
While there may be a neurotypical expectation for how certain toys are “supposed” to be used, that doesn’t automatically make other forms of play wrong.
Too often, we focus on making play look typical rather than asking a more important question:
✨ Is the child engaged?
✨ Are they exploring?
✨ Are they learning?
✨ Are they enjoying themselves?
There is absolutely value in expanding a child’s play repertoire, introducing new ideas, and increasing flexibility. But teaching new skills should not require us to reject the skills and interests a child already has.
The goal shouldn’t be to replace a child’s authentic way of engaging with the world. The goal should be to build upon it.
As parents and professionals, it’s worth reflecting on whether we’re teaching new possibilities—or unintentionally teaching children that the way they naturally play is somehow wrong.
Just some food for thought.
đź’¬ What do you think? How do you define play?
