The Neurobiological Power of Play Using the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics to Guide Play in the Healing Process richard L. gaskill

Children, like all human beings, are best understood in a social context. We humans are healthiest and most productive when we are born, grow, live, work, and raise our families in social groups (LudyDobson & Perry, 2010). We have existed and thrived for thousands of years because of our neurobiological drive to form safe, nurturing, mutually rewarding, and lasting attachments (Szalavitz & Perry, 2010). In normative attachment relationships, children can safely explore new experiences and master developmental competencies, including the ability to regulate themselves cognitively, affectively, behaviorally, physiologically, and relationally (Blaustein & Kinniburgh, 2005). Secure attachments ultimately become the basis of resiliency in children exposed to distressing experiences (Shapiro & Levendosky, 1999). When these important attachment systems are compromised through multiple and chronic lapses within caregiving systems, crucial neural systems can be altered. This alteration negatively affects key competencies, such as the ability to regulate emotions and experiences. These effects in turn can contribute to neuropsychiatric problems and result in enduring social and emotional difficulties across the lifespan (Blaustein & Kinniburgh, 2005). Zeanah et al. (2004) have reported the prevalence of attachmentdisordered children to be as high as 35% of children entering foster care, and as high as 38–40% of high-risk infant and