One of the many reasons summer camp is my favorite is because we spend SO MUCH time playing. No matter how old everyone is, we all play for, like, the whole time! We hang out on a playground, we do organized executive functioning games, and we do board and card games EVERY DAY!    In this week's podcast/YouTube episode, I'm hanging out with Lindsay from Mindful as a Mother.  Lindsay and her business partner are both child counselors and have created an amazing program providing resources to parents of neurodivergent kids, which is a category Lindsay falls into as well! We talked a lot about how social skills can be taught in ways that can actually be harmful for our kids, and how focusing on play makes everything easier and better.    Here's a clip from the episode:   Lindsay: So first, when your child is in a play state, that is when they are the most regulated, most open to learning, and most open to change. So I try and get every child that I work with into a play state, and make things as fun and engaging as possible when they are learning new skills so that one: that information really sticks, and two: they're more likely to absorb and be able to apply it later. Steph: Yeah, so you're mentioning when they're in a play state and they're just kind of more receptive... my immediate thought was, if you're familiar with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, right? That we, when we are worried about things, we're not in a play state. When we are stressed, when we're anxious, when we're hungry, when we're tired, when we're afraid, we're not in a play state. And so I hadn't really thought of that before but I think that's such a great thing to be aware of is that if your kiddo is playing, they're comfortable, right? They're physically comfortable, they're emotionally comfortable. And so yeah, and it really is interesting, any time we can make something fun and engaging, just how much more... Even as… as adults, right? That's why, games! I mean, the concept of gamification is such a big deal.  Where to find Lindsay: MindfulasaMother on social media