NeuroplayAustralia - Play Therapy and Child Counsellor

29/01/2026

🧠 Understanding the Developing Brain = More Patience & Empathy

Think of the brain in two parts: the lower brain, fully developed at birth, handling reflexes, breathing, and heart rate; and the upper brain, responsible for emotional control, empathy, and complex thinking—which doesn’t fully mature until the mid-20s!

Toddlers literally don’t have the brain development to pause and reflect yet. So tantrums and big emotions? Not bad behaviour—just a brain still under construction.

When we see it this way, frustration turns into understanding. 🩷

References:
https://linktr.ee/rebeccaeanes?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaZ8O_Dm49_w-M90fW9XQCI6TjA2Z1r4IA6hjEq53IGfMagD3TyTMk1JJUk_aem_U41RW48PSaJTTXWLp62dpw

29/01/2026

Children who sleep near parents often show better stress recovery, emotional regulation, and lower anxiety because the consistent physical closeness provides a powerful sense of safety, calms the developing nervous system, supports secure attachment, and helps build neural pathways for resilience, making the child’s brain learn to manage stress more effectively through cues like heartbeat and breathing. This practice reinforces the belief that comfort is always available, reducing fear and promoting overall emotional stability and trust.

🗂️Key Mechanisms at Play:

📑Nervous System Regulation: Parental presence, warmth, and rhythmic breathing act as external stabilizers for a baby’s still-developing nervous system, keeping heart rate steady and cortisol levels lower.

📑Secure Attachment: Repeated exercises of comfort and security during vulnerable nighttime hours build trust and a strong, secure attachment, a foundation for confidence and healthy bonds.

📑Calming Stress Response: The proximity teaches the brain that challenges are manageable, leading to faster stress recovery (lower cortisol) and less hypervigilance.

📑Neural Pathway Development: This closeness strengthens connections between the prefrontal cortex (emotion control) and the amygdala (fear response), helping children respond to stress with balanced reactions rather than overreactions.

📑Reduced Baseline Anxiety: Feeling safe and soothed consistently throughout the night creates a “safety blueprint” in the brain, lowering overall anxiety levels and fear responses.

🗂️Benefits for Development:

📑Better Emotional Balance: A calm nervous system supports steadier emotional rhythms during the day, leading to fewer meltdowns.

📑Enhanced Coping Skills: Children learn that comfort is available, building confidence in their ability to handle challenges.

📑Stronger Resilience: Early nurturing interactions shape future emotional health, providing tools for managing stress later in life.

SEE PMID: 38351212, 33988085, 32946284, 38837802

PMID:

29/01/2026

Yes it's a big week for our little ones ( and big ones too) as school returns in Victoria. It's also a big week for our parents and careers too. Don't forget to check in with yourself too . Just like our little ones may be feeling both excited and nervous about returning or beginning school , mums n dads may be feeling relieved and sad sending their little ones to school. Be gentle with yourself being a parent is hard work.

27/01/2026

Holding Space for New Beginnings

Today is a big day in our house. My youngest daughter started high school this morning. Even though she’s capable and excited, there were still those familiar feelings including nerves, worry, a fluttery tummy, lots of what ifs.

As I dropped her off, I found myself thinking about so many of the children and families I work with, little ones starting prep or kindy and those moving schools.

It’s reminded me how big school transitions are, especially for our youngest children starting prep or kindy.
For little ones, starting school holds so much:

- new routines and rules
- new teachers and faces
- new friendships
- new buildings, sounds, shoes and uniforms.

Many children work incredibly hard to hold it together at school. They want to do the right thing. They try their very best all day long. This takes so much energy for their little bodies. And then they come home.

If your child falls apart after school; tears, meltdowns, clinginess, irritability, or shutting down, please know this isn’t bad behaviour or regression. It’s a sign your child feels safe enough with you to finally let go.

A few gentle ways to support your prep or kindy child in these early weeks:

Lower expectations after School
This isn’t the time for errands, questions, or extra demands. Simple and calm helps their nervous system settle.

Connection before conversation
A snack, a cuddle, quiet time, or a few minutes of child-led play can make a big difference.

Name feelings without trying to fix them
- “You worked really hard today.”
- “It makes sense you feel so tired now.”
- “I’m so proud of how hard you tried today.”

Remember behaviour is communication
Big feelings can mean your child is adjusting to change not failing.

Starting prep or kindy isn’t about children being brave all the time.
It’s about having safe, steady and predictable places to land.

And to you, as parents; you don’t need to get this perfect either. Your grounded presence, patience, and connection are already doing important work.

Enjoy this special time, your child will be in high school too before you know it!!

Take care,

Em

27/01/2026

A baby’s brain treats a mother’s absence as a life-threatening emergency, triggering a massive 300% cortisol spike in seconds.

When an infant cannot locate their mother, their brain doesn't just feel lonely; it perceives an immediate threat to its very existence.

Research indicates that the infant stress response system is so finely tuned that it activates almost instantly upon separation. Within less than sixty seconds, cortisol levels—the body's primary stress hormone—can surge by 200% to 300%.

This physiological reaction isn't a choice or a behavioral habit; it is a primal, hard-wired mechanism designed to ensure the child's survival through urgent reconnection.

For a developing infant, safety is not an abstract concept or a conscious understanding of their environment. Instead, safety is biologically tied to the physical proximity of a primary caregiver. What may look like simple panic to an observer is actually a sophisticated biological alarm system heightening alertness and driving behavior to restore the missing bond. By understanding that these intense reactions are rooted in neurobiology rather than temperament, we gain a deeper appreciation for the profound physiological impact of early human connection.

Source:
National Center for Biotechnology Information. (2023). Neurobiological response to caregiver separation in infants. PubMed.

27/01/2026

“Children’s emotional regulation does not develop in a straight line.

We often talk about emotional control as something that steadily improves with age—as if each birthday unlocks a new level of calm, resilience, and self-control. But brain development doesn’t work that way.

Emotional regulation grows, collapses under pressure, and then rebuilds.
Sometimes stronger. Sometimes shakier.

A child may be able to self-regulate beautifully one day—and struggle deeply the next. That doesn’t mean they’re “regressing,” being difficult, or failing to learn. It means their brain is still under construction.

Yes, regulation depends on brain maturity.
But so much of it is biological, not behavioral.

It’s shaped by:
• Stress levels
• Sleep, nutrition, and health
• Sensory load
• Emotional safety
• The presence (or absence) of supportive adults

Under stress, even a well-developed system can go offline. With support, it can come back online—and grow.

This matters for parents, educators, clinicians, and leaders who work with children every day.

When we understand that regulation is context-dependent, not character-dependent, we respond with more patience, better support, and far less blame.

Children don’t need us to demand consistency from an inconsistent nervous system.
They need us to be the steady part while theirs is still learning how to be.”

-Amy Reyes Hauff

26/01/2026

26/01/2026

♥️

This isn’t just poetic—it’s a developmental truth. Children’s natural orientation toward wonder, curiosity, and play isn’t immaturity; it’s how they’re wired to learn, connect, and make sense of their world

As adults, we often mistake their sense of magic for immaturity. But what if we recognised it as expertise? Children are masters at finding meaning in the ordinary, possibility in the mundane, and connection in the everyday

Play therapy meets children in this space—where magic isn’t fantasy, it’s the language of processing, healing, and growth

🗓️ 6 days to go until ‘Play Therapy Week’ ✨

r

22/01/2026

A great reminder 👇 think 'felt safety'
Felt safety is an internal, subjective experience where your nervous system perceives you as truly secure, regardless of whether you are objectively/physically "safe". This process is driven by neuroception, an unconscious biological mechanism that evaluates risk 4–5 times every second. If the brain perceives a threat, it activates the "survival brain" (fight, flight, or freeze), shutting down the "thinking brain" responsible for logic and learning.

20/01/2026

💙💛💙