The impact of crisis on children

When crisis or conflict hit, children are often the first and most affected. They may be forced to flee their homes and their schools, go without food or water, or live in unsafe or unsanitary situations. These changes and deprivations can have severe impacts on their physical and their psychosocial wellbeing. Traumatic events and toxic stress negatively impact children’s brain development and can have lifelong implications.

In times of crisis, children’s access and ability to play is also restricted. And while it may seem frivolous, it isn’t. Play is how children make sense of the world around them and connect to hope. Disrupting access to play can be deeply affecting and prevent healing. For 25 years, Right To Play has been supporting children’s emotional well-being through play, giving children the tools and the space to process trauma and regain a sense of normalcy, control, and connection.

We spoke with Domenico di Nuzzo, Child Protection and Psychosocial Support Specialist at Right To Play, about the impact of conflict and uncertainty on children and their communities, and how play-based psychosocial support can enhance children’s emotional health and development.

Why is play so effective for children experiencing crisis?

Regular play opportunities help children and youth feel a sense of structure and, ultimately, ownership in a moment when they may feel they have no control over their life. Imagine you’re a girl or a boy who has just arrived in a refugee camp. Things are scary, you’ve had to leave your home – there are a lot of unknowns. Knowing that every morning there will be sports and playtime activities in a group helps establish a routine, which contributes to a sense of normalcy. This is extremely important, especially when you are uncertain about what tomorrow holds – at least you know that this activity will take place and that you have a trusted person, a coach, a teacher to ask for help.

The idea of optimism is very important within the classroom, particularly in situations where you run classes with children affected by prolonged exposure to toxic stress, that results in nightmares, depression and so on. Play gives a sense of perseverance and hope for a brighter future. It instils the capacity within the child to say “I decide. I can do it. I'm capable. I'm worth it.”

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Play helps children cope and develop protective habits that instil a sense of hope and optimism.

How does Right To Play use play to support children's psychosocial well-being?

Right To Play harnesses the power of structured, purposeful play to promote the development of emotional well-being, life skills, social connection, and personal growth. Play is a universal language that helps girls and boys process traumatic events, build self-confidence, and regain a sense of normalcy and predictability, especially in crisis or post-crisis environments. It helps shift toxic stress into strength by enabling children and youth to express emotions, solve problems, and build supportive peer and adult relationships.

How do you and our teams adapt our programs to meet the needs of children in these different contexts?

In conflict zones or complex emergencies, the focus of our work with children and youth is to address traumatic experiences and help restore a sense of safety and protection. We work collaboratively with the communities we serve and adapt programs based on their inputs and the context. We also incorporate local games, languages, and traditions to ensure that our activities are relevant, respectful, and effective to tackle the spike of child protection risks that are exacerbated or generated by the crisis, like child early forced marriage, child labour and family separation.

In these regions, people develop unique social behaviours and coping mechanisms to deal with the trauma resulting from years of difficult circumstances and harmful environments. For example, in many of the communities where we operate, cultural beliefs and gender norms create discomfort around caregivers playing with their children. In these contexts, playing with your child may be seen as a superficial and useless thing, rather than a way to bond to your child and heal together. Thus, while we are playing, we are also challenging these societal norms.

When a father engages in play with his child or a teacher interacts with their pupils through play, a bridge forms between the child, the adult, and the child amongst peers. Strengthening these significant connections helps the child develop the confidence and positive social skills necessary for forming healthy relationships in various aspects of life.

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Children benefit from the involvement of multiple stable, positive adults in their lives.

Can you share a story that stands out for you?

Mopti, Mali is a community that hosts many people who have been internally displaced because of conflict. One of the children we worked with thereis living with disability, and was being shunned by his peers. So he refused to participate in classroom games.

Our facilitator, Hamadoun, led play-based psychosocial support with children in the community. He saw that the child was being marginalized, so he had them play a game called Walk with Three Legs. In this game, each player has their legs tied to two other players, and they collaborate to win. In the game, the children have to rely on one another to win, and the reliance fostered acceptance of each person’s different strengths and abilities. After the game, Hamadoun talked to the children about the value and capabilities within every individual. Now, the child and his peers have developed friendships, and they all play together.

What are some of the challenges our teams face in supporting children’s psychosocial health?

The barriers to supporting children's well-being are often complex and interconnected. Our approach needs to be adaptable, intersectional and inclusive, so that we can operate in even the most remote or unstable settings and reach children who need support most, wherever they are...

The other challenge we often face is the stigma around mental health. Mental health can be a difficult topic in many communities. We use play – which is universally accepted and understood for children – to help normalize emotional expression in ways that feel safe and culturally appropriate. Our activities create space for children to process their feelings and begin the healing process.

We’re also mindful of limited resources, especially in times of crisis. Our programs are intentionally low-cost and easy to implement utilizing local materials and community knowledge. And perhaps most importantly, we invest in people. We build the capacity of local staff and volunteers to deliver consistent, child-centred programming, ensuring that support is not only sustainable but grounded in the realities of each community.

Domenico is the Global Child Protection and Psychosocial Support Specialist at Right To Play. As part of the Global Program Quality and Impact Team, he works closely with country teams to strengthen efforts in ensuring that girls, boys, adolescents, and youth — in all their diversity — improve well-being, are less vulnerable to protection concerns and thrive in safe, protective environments, even in complex emergencies and contexts of conflict and fragility. With over a decade of global experience, Domenico is a dedicated protection practitioner, specializing in Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (CPHA), Gender-Based Violence (GBV), Safe Programming (Safeguarding, PSEAH), and Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP).

Right To Play has an extensive library of training guides and games, including our POWER games, a collection of 100 gender-responsive play-based learning activities created to support parents, teachers, coaches, social workers and others to promote children's learning and development. You can also learn more about our approach to play-based psychosocial support by reading our policy brief, Promoting Psychosocial Wellbeing Through the Power of Play