‘We use our words, they use their play’: How playtime is helping kids process the LA fires

Playtime at the Children's Center at Caltech has looked a little different since the fires engulfed Los Angeles a couple weeks ago.

The 4- and 5-year-olds at the preschool are used to using blocks, books and all types of toys to entertain each other for hours on end. What's new is the subject matter.

Their teacher Jose Osorio said every day since the school reopened after a short closure, kids have been processing the fires through make-believe.

One day, that meant a child used blocks to create a scene of a forest fire, before his friend jumped in to imagine some water that helped put the fire out. Another student built a crowded diorama using colorful wooden blocks and scarves. He pointed out his house, the ocean and a fire.

" The fire will go away when the blue ocean will meet there later," he told his teacher, while rearranging some scenery.

Processing through play

Experts say play is an important way for kids to process the fires and their impact — especially for children too young to necessarily put how they're feeling into words.

"We use our words, they use their play," said Dr. Melissa Brymer, who directs disaster programs for the UCLA-Duke University National Center for Child Traumatic Stress. "We can see some of their play mimicking what their experiences were during the fire and that's their way of processing what's been happening for them."

Brymer said play isn't the only thing that parents and caregivers might see change in their children after the fires; reactions may run the gamut from more outbursts to separation anxiety and other changes in behavior.

But Suzanne Silverstein, who directs a Cedars-Sinai art therapy program for kids, said playing is a great way for kids to work through the fires in their own way.

"After 9/11, I cannot tell you how many kids would build towers and knock them down in repetition over and over and over," Silverstein said. "So these kids now might be drawing fires. They might be really obsessed with the fire department and the firemen."

She said it's important to let kids lead the experience; ask questions about what they're feeling and experiencing, rather than make assumptions.

After the Tubbs Fire

Visitors at the Children’s Museum of Sonoma County witnessed the power of play firsthand after the Tubbs Fire destroyed thousands of homes in Northern California in 2017.

The museum was not far from the devastation, but reopened quickly in the aftermath as a free place for families to gather. By chance, the museum had already planned on bringing a firetruck to the space as a special exhibit.

Museum founder Collette Michaud said she watched children who had lost their homes in the fire find solace in pretending to be firefighters.

"[Parents were] so afraid that their kids are going to see a fire truck and they're going to relive this trauma that they went through. [But] it's a good way for them to relive it, because it gives them the power to do something about it, to be in a place of maybe making a change," Michaud said.

Children at the Children's Center at CalTech built Lego models of their homes in the days before the L.A. fires.

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Libby Rainey

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‘A gradual process’

Jose Osorio at Caltech said play isn't proscriptive, and like with all their curricula, teachers take cues from the kids.

Just before the fires, children in his classroom were building Lego models of their homes. In the first few days back, the teachers put that project away, fearing it could be upsetting. But soon enough, the kids were asking to play with their model homes again.

"They see that the fires are being put out. It is a gradual process. Some of them haven't been able to go home. But, they do look forward to that," Osorio said. "And they do know that everything in the long run is going to be OK. And at least through play here, they're able to get to that happy spot a lot sooner."