Emma Bensley is a freelance musician and facilitator specialising in music sessions for the very young. She is also Lead Artist for Play on Prescription.
As it’s maternal mental health week this week, we thought that now would be a great time to share with you an update on a new programme that we are running at Theatre Hullabaloo to support parents and carers of little ones born during the pandemic.
If you haven’t heard of our ‘Play on Prescription’ programme before, we would love to tell you more about it and the wonderful impact it’s already having on parents and little ones from our local area.
We know that many families have missed out on opportunities to learn ways to engage creatively with their babies and to meet other parents and their little ones because of the pandemic.
In response to this, and with some help from some wonderful local authority partners, Play on Prescription was born!
The programme is a range of resources and specially designed stay, play and sing sessions, created for parents/carers and their babies to develop new skills, gain confidence and meet new friends whilst having fun together.
As well as coming along to our weekly sessions, parents have also been able to take home one of our Baby Play packs, which includes a mixture of creative toys and props, as well as a Playbook packed with ideas for how to play creatively with your baby. Additionally, parents and carers have been able to access short videos from Theatre Hullabaloo’s website, which give creative ideas on how to use each of the items in the pack.
The programme has been running for over a month now, and we have already had some lovely feedback from parents who have attended, with many finding the sessions beneficial for their own mental health and others commenting on the positive impact that the baby play packs have had on their parenting experience at home. You can discover more about how the baby play packs have benefitted parents via this short video.
If your little one was born during the pandemic and you feel you’d both benefit from our sessions then please feel free to refer yourself via our form on this page.