Play Therapy Critique
SWG 617
Stephanie Loyer
Arizona State University
Play therapy is a type of psychotherapy that uses play to aid in the therapeutic process. It is most commonly used with children between the ages of four to eleven since they are too young to communicate well through language and this is the period when children most likely use imaginary play although it can be adapted to suit any age. Play therapy allows children to problem solve, learn and express their emotions. It also gives children the chance to explore their environment in a safe and non-threatening way. Play therapy assists children to focus on the activities and not on the stress of the outcome. Dolls, sandboxes, drawings and games are
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Play therapy works by offering the child new understanding of his behavior, problems and through this awareness helps the child to refocus his development (O’Connell, 2001).
Play has been recognized as an important tool for hundreds of years. Plato described the importance of play, “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” The first documented case of play being used as a therapeutic approach was in 1909 when Freud worked with a little boy named Hans. One of the approaches Freud used for an intervention was play therapy. Freud described Little Hans as having anxiety and used dolls, art and role playing as an intervention to aid little Hans in developing awareness and coping skills (O’Neill, J. 2010). In 1919, Melanie Klein, an Austrian-British psychoanalyst, implemented the use of toys and play in her work with children. Klein also is associated with being one of the co-founders of object relations theory (Gil, E. 1991). Like her father, Anna Freud also used play therapy and was one of the first professionals to advocate a different type of therapy for children that was different from the traditional methods used for adult therapy. Anna believed that she could gain access into a child’s life and that play was the vehicle to allow that relationship to grow.
Haslam, D., Harris, S. (2011). Integrating Play and Family Therapy Methods: A Survey of Play
Play contributes to children’s “physical, emotional and social well-being” (Else, 2009, p.8) and through play, the child’s holistic development and well-being is being constantly accounted for as is it led by the individual. The child decides what s/he wants to do and does it; it is
Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer and poet famous for his tales and poems of horror and mystery. Edgar Poe was born in Boston on January 19, 1809. Between his poems and short stories he earned the nickname "Father of the Detective Story" among other names. His parents were David and Elizabeth Poe. His father abandoned the family in 1810, and his mother died the following year. He was the first known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.
Play is a way for children to learn about their environment and how interaction occurs within. It is through trial and error that children are able to create options; follow their own interests and show “independence in thought and actions” using their knowledge and understanding (Moyles, 2005, p.3). Children develop resilience though play. However for a number of children can experience stressful occurrences during their lives and play can often be restricted. Therefore the play worker’s role in supporting children’s play is a crucial measure towards children's development. For those that work with children require the dexterity to prompt and contribute to children’s play, which can be seen as a principle aspect of therapeutic alliance.
Play therapy is a developmentally sensitive intervention where the therapist takes into account not only the chronological age of the child, but their developmental stage too. As it is common for children to regress in play to younger stages, it is important that the therapist is attuned to this through active listening and observation and supports the child in reverting back to any early experiences through the use of sensory or symbolic play. It would benefit children who have experienced abuse, neglect, have learning difficulties, suffer depression, are withdrawn or extremely anxious or fearful of present with socially unacceptable behavior to name but a few (Rye,
I really enjoyed reading about play therapy as it’s a theory I’ve had the least experience with in my educational background. With that being said, I found the theory extremely interesting. The idea that play can move clients from unconscious thoughts, feelings, and memories to a more conscious level of understanding is central to play therapy.
I am doing my movie review over “Inception” which we recently watched in Senior Comp. My three criteria’s are suspense, action, and good actors. I believe these three criteria’s are important in making a movie good because they keep the audience into the movie and the more people want to watch the movie, the more reviews it gets, it will grow on the Box Office.
Play is the business of childhood, allowing your child free rein to experiment with the world around him and the emotional world inside him, says Linda Acredolo, professor of psychology at the University of California at Davis and co-author of Baby Signs: How to Talk With Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk and Baby Minds: Brain-Building Games Your Baby Will Love. While it may look like mere child's play to you, there's a lot of work — problem solving, skill building, overcoming physical and mental challenges — going on behind the scenes. Here are some of the things your child is experiencing and learning, along with ideas on how you can help boost the benefits of his play. Play builds the
Negative experiences lived in our early childhood years that mark the development of the child can be reversed through therapeutic experiences that provides children with the means to express themselves through symbols and play and focuses on relationships (Taylor & Bratton, 2014). As Kottman (2001) pointed out on his research, many professionals who work with children on a therapeutic base use play as a way of communication with young children because most children under 10 years of age do not have the language skills and/or the abstract reasoning necessary to verbally express and process their attitudes, feelings, reactions, and thoughts. Adlerian play therapy is very encouraging because it lets the child enter into a relationship of equality with an adult and decide what they want to talk about and how they want to communicate during therapy (Snow et al., 1999). Play therapy gives children the opportunity to play out their feelings and experiences to make sense of the world around
Ray, Bratton, Rhine, and Jones. (2001). The Effectiveness of Play Therapy: Resopnding to the Critics. International Journal of Play Therapy, 10(1), 85-108.
Child therapy differs greatly from adult therapy in a way where in adult therapy, a person is expected to talk about their feelings while the therapist sits there to listen and take notes. With child therapy, there is no way to do that without the child getting bored about sitting still and talking about their feelings. According to child therapist Douglas Green, child therapy should be done in the language of play. Children are more expressive about their feelings and they grow a lot more when they are playing games, with toys, engaging in activities, through drawing, and some other forms of art (Green, 2012). In other words, the child will recover and grow more from the divorce of their parents or the death of their dog or family issues in general if they link up with a therapist and be able to express themselves by engaging in any type of play, than talking about their feelings. By doing this, a therapist will get more feedback from the child instead of forcing them to just sit still and ask them questions. Play therapy, along with other methods specifically designed for child therapy, focuses on the child’s emotional well-being, it serves as a healthy way to express their concerns and feelings, and it helps improve their relationship with those around them especially their families.
This research is geared towards specialists, who are involved in coming up with the parameters of play therapy and range from child psychologists, school counselors, social workers, and parents in a home-setting looking for therapy to suit their children. The research is also written in a concise and clear manner with simple terms which members of the public interested in the field can understand. It has
Play-time is an essential part of early childhood development as well as their most primitive form of expression. In an article titled “The Importance of Play” by Bruno Bettelheim, he refers to Sigmund Freud’s thoughts that play is a child’s first step in attaining “cultural and psychological achievements”. (Bettelheim 324) The
I believe this article is prominent when addressing the issues of multiculturalism and diversity in that it explores thoughts and experiences of white female teachers educating students of color. The article takes real-world diversity issues within school settings and offers self-reflection on the parts of educators and the readers themselves. The teachers in the article are White females educating African American children. This is diversity in itself. The researcher allows the teachers to openly express how they feel about their experiences educating students of color.
After a child experiences sexual abuse he or she may have many negative effects that are a direct result of that trauma such as delayed physical, emotional, and social development (Myers, Bratton, Hagen, & Findling, 2011). Play is a natural way for children to process healing, by playing out their experiences, thoughts, and feelings. This is extremely beneficial for children who have been sexually abused. Play helps the child communicate and process their sexual abuse experience at a pace that is right for them (O’ Connor, Schaefer, & Braverman, 2016).