The short answer
Therapy is clinical work with a treatment goal. A therapist assesses your child, sets objectives, measures progress against them, and reports on it. Play-based sessions have no treatment goal and no assessment. A play guide comes to your home and spends an hour or two doing something your child genuinely wants to do.
Both can be valuable. They are not substitutes for one another, and a child can have both in the same week. The difference that matters most to families is this: therapy asks your child to work on something. Play-based sessions do not ask your child to work on anything at all.
Antics runs play-based sessions. We are not therapy, not behavioural intervention, and not babysitting. There is no diagnostic reporting, there are no performance expectations, and there are no clinical scorecards.
What therapy is designed to do
Occupational therapy, speech therapy, behavioural intervention and similar clinical services all share a structure. A qualified clinician assesses your child against a developmental or functional benchmark, identifies areas to target, designs a plan, and tracks whether the plan is working. Sessions are purposeful and measured.
That structure is the point. If your child needs to develop a specific skill, whether that is expressive language, fine motor control, feeding, or emotional regulation strategies, a clinician with training in that area is the right person and a measured plan is the right tool.
Therapy is also usually the route that produces documentation. If you need a report for a school team, a funding body, or a specialist referral, that comes from a clinician, not from a play guide.
What play-based sessions are designed to do
A play-based session starts from a different question. Not what does this child need to work on, but what does this child actually enjoy, and how do we build two hours around that.
At Antics a session might be a cooking experiment, a long involved art project, shooting hoops in the driveway, building something, or a conversation about a special interest that runs the full session because that is where the child wanted to go. Our four starting categories are arts and crafts, sports and movement, culinary creations, and culture and community, but those are a starting point rather than a fixed menu.
Nothing is being measured. If a child spends ninety minutes on one thing, that is a good session. If they change activity six times, that is also a good session. The play guide follows the child.
What tends to come out of that is not a skill on a chart. It is a child who looks forward to something, who has an adult outside the family who is genuinely interested in what they are interested in, and who gets to be good at something on their own terms.
Side by side
Goal
Therapy: a defined treatment objective, set by a clinician.
Play-based: no treatment objective. The session follows the child’s interest.
Measurement
Therapy: progress is assessed and recorded.
Play-based: nothing is scored or reported on.
Who leads
Therapy: the clinician leads, working through a plan.
Play-based: the child leads, the play guide adapts.
Documentation
Therapy: produces reports usable by schools and funders.
Play-based: no diagnostic or clinical documentation.
Training
Therapy: a regulated clinical credential in a specific discipline.
Play guides: Canadian Red Cross first aid certified, experienced with neurodivergent youth.
Where
Therapy: usually a clinic, sometimes the home.
Antics play sessions: usually the family home, and we are also happy to meet at a park, playground or a favourite community spot.
Can a child have both?
Yes, and many do. They are not competing approaches, and choosing one does not mean giving up the other.
Families often tell us the two serve different parts of the week. Therapy is the appointment where something is being worked on. The play session is the one where nothing is. For a child whose week already contains a lot of appointments, having one block of time that asks nothing of them can matter a great deal.
Some families in British Columbia are able to apply Autism Funding Unit support toward eligible services. Eligibility and approval are determined by the AFU, not by Antics, so that is a conversation to have with them directly.
How to tell which one your child needs right now
This is worth being honest about, because the answer is genuinely sometimes not us.
If there is a specific skill you need your child to develop, if a school team or funding body has asked for documentation, or if something has changed and you need a professional opinion about what is happening, start with a clinician. A play session cannot do those things and we would not claim otherwise.
If your child is already well supported clinically but has nothing in their week that is purely theirs, if group programs have not worked because of the group rather than the activity, or if you are looking for something your child will actually look forward to, that is the gap play-based sessions are built for.
If you are not sure, the discovery session is free and 45 minutes long, with no obligation. It is a reasonable way to find out without committing to anything.
Common questions
Is play-based support the same as play therapy?
No. Play therapy is a clinical discipline delivered by a trained therapist, with therapeutic goals and assessment. Antics play sessions are not therapy of any kind, and our play guides are not therapists. We use play because children enjoy it, not as a treatment method.
Do you provide reports for school or funding applications?
No. We do no diagnostic reporting and produce no clinical documentation. If you need a report for a school team or a funding body, that has to come from a qualified clinician. We do check in with you after every session to share how it went and what we would like to try next time, but that is a conversation, not an assessment.
What qualifications do Antics play guides have?
Every play guide is first aid certified through the Canadian Red Cross and is experienced working with neurodivergent children and youth. They are not clinicians, and we are clear about that, because the value of a play session does not come from clinical training.
Do I need to stay home during the session?
Yes. A parent or caregiver must remain home during sessions, though direct supervision is not always necessary. Parents are welcome to join in, but the play guide leads the session.
See what a session looks like for your child
The discovery session is free, runs 45 minutes, and comes with no obligation. It is the simplest way to find out whether this is a fit.