How did PlayGroup Get Started

How was PlayGroup started? After working together for years, Becky Thomas and Krista Wilbur took a look at their experience with other social skills groups and decided there was something missing from all of them…. child-led play! Krista and Becky took their knowledge of Floortime/DIR, as well as their own experience working with children as SEITs and classroom teachers and created PlayGroup! Krista and Becky were lucky enough to find a space at the Speak, Learn and Play gym and PlayGroup was born! When it first began, PlayGroup was a space for children to play and focus on specific social skills...and cook! That’s right, we used to cook a recipe in each of our PlayGroup classes!

In the 5 years PlayGroup has been around, Krista and Becky have learned from their reflections, first-hand experience from adults and children. One thing we learned was not every kid wanted to cook, and so our interest lead groups emerged. We know how important it is to be responsive to our children and families needs. Another way we have grown since the beginning is responding to the needs of our communities with having PlayGroup come into schools. 

We also keep learning and expanding our knowledge.  Krista has gone back to school and completed a degree in social work and Becky has gone on to get further training on ADHD. We’ve also learned so much from our collaboration with occupational therapists, speech therapists and our lead instructors! Renee and Natalia bring new ideas, information and reflections to our groups. PlayGroup has changed a lot from where it first began!

One thing has never changed, at the center of our social skills groups is child-led play. We focus on what our students are showing us, meet them where they are and PLAY…you can also find us cooking from time to time!