‘Just Play’: Developing a drama therapy dyadic play intervention for children with intellectual developmental disabilities and their parents

This clinical commentary presents ‘Just Play’ – a dyadic drama therapy play intervention for children with intellectual developmental disabilities and their parents and the process of its development. These parents tend to be more didactic and less playful in interactions with their children, yet existing interventions for this population have not aimed to specifically target parent–child playfulness or encourage free-play interactions. The ‘Just Play’ intervention emphasizes the intrinsic values of play for the sake of play and playfulness for these parents and children. In this commentary, we will present the theoretical background for the intervention and its unique contribution. We will describe the process of the intervention’s development side-by-side with clinical vignettes performing the intervention, integrating research and praxis. The ‘Just Play’ intervention focuses on promoting free play and playfulness both as the medium and as the very goal of the intervention itself.