Using Neuro Dramatic Play (NDP) in schools with children and young people post Covid-19, developing positive attachments and good mental health

The effects of the global Pandemic of 2020 are likely to be with us for many years, we are thankful for the creation of effective vaccinations that have been used widely. However, the psychological and emotional fallout will also continue to be a difficulty for many school aged children and young people.

A whole generation of children and young people were locked away at home, in some cases for many months, away from their peers and friends. Some lived in difficult circumstance due to abuse, poor parenting or poverty and school can was a refuge and a safe space. It can also be equally traumatic for children and young people returning to school after months of isolation or starting school for the first time at the age of five; leading to a lack of confidence and anxiety issues around a deadly virus that has not completely gone away and the shock of being close to others. The impact of a lack of vital peer connections and play has been difficult for some. It may be many, many years before these anxieties and fears are managed effectively, if at all for some.

NDP is above all a pre-therapy creative arts and drama-based attachment model, created primarily for children and young people of all ages. This chapter will seek to consider the issues that will continue to affect pupils in school for many years to come. It will consider the adaptation of NDP approaches such as Embodiment, Projection, Role (EPR) to allow children to process potential anxieties and traumas from an attachment perspective; hopefully before they get to the stage where highly specialist mental health services need to step in to diagnose and medicate.