The Playmakers · our before-school program
Play is taught, not caught.
The Playmakers is our before-school program, and it is built around you, the parent.
What we know about this stage
Before school, play is the whole language.
Everything social a child does at this age, they do through play. And play runs on skills nobody thinks to teach, because most children pick them up by being around other children: paying attention to the same thing at the same time, taking turns, letting somebody else decide what happens next, and getting the game going again after it falls over.
Some children don't pick those up by being around other children. It isn't that your child isn't interested, and it isn't that you haven't tried. The way in is missing.
What parents tell us
Told there is a problem, and handed nothing to do about it.
Parents tell us somebody has said something, whether it was kinder, a nurse, or what they noticed themselves at a birthday party. Their child plays near other children rather than with them, and it comes apart the moment it has to be a shared game.
They tell us they have become the bridge between their child and every other child, at every playground and every gathering.
What is hardest to find out
What to actually do. Nearly all the advice available describes the problem, and almost none of it tells you what to do at four o'clock on a Tuesday in the sandpit.
The Playmakers
A program built around you, because play happens where you are.
What it provides
Shared play that holds together, with other children
A parent who can coach play as it is happening, in the places it actually happens
A move into Prep that has been planned before it arrives
Because The Playmakers is a program rather than a course, we are still there when the next change arrives. Starting Prep is the first time your child is expected to manage a new building, new adults and new rules without you in the room, and we plan for it with you first.
When your child starts school, they move into our primary school program with the people who already know them.
Available at this stage
- PEERS® for Preschoolers, a structured program delivered to you, the parent
- Holiday activities
- LiftOff, how we plan the move into Prep
- Functional assessment
Which of these, and when, is something we work out with you.
What we believe
We believe play is taught, not caught.
Most providers believe a preschooler who struggles socially needs more social exposure. More playgroup, more kinder, more time around other children.
But in reality, they are already getting the exposure, and it isn't working. Play before school is not a setting, it is a skill set, and a child who hasn't picked those skills up isn't going to acquire them by being put in more play. They are accumulating failed attempts instead of practice, and every one of them teaches a young child that play goes badly. More of the same isn't the answer, because the piece that's missing is one a playground can't hand over.
That's why we built The Playmakers around the parent rather than the child. We teach you the skills and you do the coaching, which means it happens in the sandpit on a Tuesday afternoon, where play actually is, rather than for an hour a week in a room. Your child is assessed before and after, so we measure what changed in them rather than counting how many sessions you attended. And because it is a program rather than a course, we are still there when the next change arrives. The move into Prep is the first time your child will be expected to manage a new building, new adults and a new set of rules without you in the room, and we plan for it before it happens rather than after.
Take the first step
Let's talk about your child.
Request a call back and one of our team will ring you at a time that suits. It takes about fifteen minutes, it's free, and you don't need anything worked out before we speak.