Inhibition of play in adulthood: An outcome needing childhood intervention for the learning disabled

Remediation of the functional problems associated with childhood learning disabilities may still leave deficits in the capacity for creative play in work and relationships. Treatment of children, to avoid this inhibition of play in adulthood, requires innovative forms of exploration, including playfulness in the clinician that go beyond coaching and support. Object relations theory provides a model for joining, and not impinging upon, the learning disabled client to reactivate the capacity for play, necessary to fulfillment in relating and in work.Dr. Rosenberger is a clinical social worker and psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City. She is chairperson of the Human Behavior and Social Environment Sequence at Hunter College School of Social Work.