This study looks at early years practitioners understanding of play and how they use it to support young children they perceive to have additional needs. There is a profusion of literature and theory presenting the value of play in the early stages of development and learning, however there are variations in the definitions of what constitutes play. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with seven practitioners working in the private, voluntary and independent sector of early years provision. A grounded theory approach was undertaken to collect and analyse the data to develop theories regarding their understanding of play and how they seek effective play based interventions to support young children's continued development. A number of concepts emerged through the findings suggesting that understanding of play was to some extent limited. Furthermore speech and language was identified as the main area of need the participants had experience of identifying and supporting. The findings revealed how the implementation of effective interventions were affected by the participant's confidence in how they perceived their job role and in working with external professional agencies. The findings consider the implications for Educational Psychologists working within the early years sector.