From RBT to Mom: Bringing Play-Based Learning Home

At Springling Therapy, we often talk about how meaningful learning happens through everyday moments, play, and connection. One of the most special parts of our work is seeing those strategies carry over beyond the clinic walls and into families’ daily lives.

This Mother’s Day, we wanted to share reflections from a former Springling RBT who is now a stay-at-home mom of two little girls. She shares how the skills she learned during her time using ESDM and play-based intervention continue to shape the way she interacts, teaches, and connects with her daughters each day.

Thank you Alyx for sharing!!

My time with Springling was beneficial in many ways. I learned so much about how everyday activities could be turned into play and transformed into fun learning opportunities. As an ESDM RBT turned mom of two under two, I’ve been able to utilize my skills from RBT work with my girls each day.

Something I put into practice very early with my oldest was toy rotation. I do it once a month so that, during the first few weeks, they are learning the toys and how to play with them. By the end of the month, they are ideally able to play more independently while incorporating the skills we worked on together.

Another thing I learned was how to follow the child’s lead. Doing this allows play to be more enjoyable for them, and they tend to stay engaged longer. I’m able to incorporate new play skills based on their interests in the toy at the time.

When I’m playing with my girls, I model age-appropriate language for each child. For my youngest, I focus more on labeling and emphasize a couple of specific words for each play activity. For my oldest, I use a “word up” method. She has a great vocabulary full of labels that I’m now able to build on, whether through prepositions we are working on, the color or size of the toy, or even a simple verb paired with her phrase.

I also model play schemas with one to two steps for my youngest and three to four steps for my oldest. Our favorite sets currently in rotation are kitchen (anything involving cutting, ice cream, grocery shopping, or tea time), baby (bedtime, walks, and storytime), and farm.

Being with my girls each day can make it hard to notice day-to-day progress sometimes, but with toy rotation, I’m able to see how they use their current skills with the toys and then, the next time those toys are rotated back in, how they engage with them differently based on the new skills they’ve acquired over just a couple of months.

It’s fun and rewarding to watch their little minds work and learn new things.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there, Alyx

At Springling, we love seeing how the principles of connection, play, and engagement extend far beyond therapy sessions. To all the moms spending their days teaching through play, celebrating tiny victories, creating meaningful moments with their children, and simply doing the best they can each day — Happy Mother’s Day!

Alyx with her adorable little girls.