Play Therapy in Elementary School

CED 600: Introduction to Counseling

Abstract

Because the child's world is a world of action and activity, play therapy provides the psychologist in elementary-school settings with an opportunity to enter the child's world. In the play therapy relationship, toys are like the child's words and play is the child's language. Therefore, children play out their problems, experiences, concerns, and feelings in a manner that is similar to the process of talk therapy. This paper provides practical information about play therapy, a discussion of the skills needed by the psychologist/counselor, how to involve parents in the treatment process, and a review of play therapy research studies.

Play Therapy in Elementary School
An Overview of Play Therapy
Play therapy is to children what talk therapy is to adults. Play is a child’s language, children express themselves best through their natural language—the language of play. Play therapy refers to a method of psychotherapy whereby the child’s natural means of expression, namely plays, is used as a therapeutic method to help him/her in coping with emotional stress or trauma. Therapist use a child's fantasies and the symbolic meanings of his or her play as a method for understanding and communication with the child.
Play therapy is used to treat problems that are interfering with the child's normal development. Such difficulties would be extreme in degree and have been occurring for many months without resolution. Reasons for treatment include, but are not limited to, temper tantrums, aggressive behavior, and non-medical problems with bowel or bladder control, difficulties sleeping, having nightmares, and experiencing worries or fears. This type of treatment is also used with children who have experienced sexual or physical abuse, neglect, the loss of a family member, medical illness, physical injury, or any experience that is traumatic.
The aim of play therapy is to decrease those behavioral and emotional difficulties that interfere significantly with a child's normal functioning. Play therapy has been used effectively with children who have an understanding level of a normal three to eight year old.
Through Play Therapy children learn about themselves and their surroundings, their capabilities, their limitations, they learn new skills, learn how to handle anger and frustration, heal, work through difficult times, and increase their self-esteem and ability to communicate.
In Play Therapy Children are provided therapeutic toys to enable them to say with the toys what they have difficulty saying with words…. They can use dolls, puppets, paints, or other toys to say what they think or how they feel. Play therapy allows children the chance to work through, heal, and move past the tough times in their lives. The use of toys enables children to transfer anxieties, fears, fantasies, and guilt to objects rather than people. During the process, children are safe from their own feelings and reactions because play enables children to distance themselves from traumatic events and experiences.
Play therapy is different from regular playing and should only be done by a therapist with specialized training. Counselors should possess listening skills, empathy skills, genuiness skills, unconditional positive regard, concreteness skills, and encouragement skills. These skills will allow the counselor to work effectively with the student. Having interaction with the parent/parents during the child’s play therapy is crucial. Before the child’s first session, the counselor usually has a talk with the parent/parents to find out about how the behavior in question developed. During this time the counselor learns about how communication between the parent and child is and also how the child is disciplined. The counselor then works alone with the child, but the parent/parents are contacted when there are important issues that arise. Regular feedback sessions are scheduled after the first few sessions. The counselor and parents will work together to understand the child and to foster productive, respectful and supportive ways of communication with the child.
The results of play therapy can be normal or abnormal. In normal results, there is significant reduction or disappearance of the main problems for which the child was initially seen. The child should also be functioning adequately at home, in school, with peers and should be able to participate in and enjoy extracurricular activities. Abnormal results occur if the child is extremely resistant and refuses to participate in treatment or if the child's ways of coping are so tightly held that it is not possible for them to learn more adaptive ones.
Often the question of when does a child need therapy comes up, it is sometime difficult to determine when a child needs therapy because all children exhibit what adults call “abnormal behavior” from time to time. If your child/children appears depressed or angry much of the time or if their grades, school performance, or attitude at home gets worse, it may be an indicator that your child needs a little help with whatever is bothering them, you may be well served to get an assessment done to see if counseling would assist your child/children. Play therapy is usually the best tool to use to help your child/children.
Research
Play therapy is not a method based on guess, trial and error, or whims of the play therapist at the moment. Play therapy is a well-thought-out, philosophically conceived, developmentally based, and research-supported approach to helping children cope with and overcome the problems they experience in the process of living their lives.
Play Therapy research has been conducted to investigate a range of issues, including clinical effectiveness, parental involvement and the analysis of specific techniques.
The field of play therapy is growing and is now represented by the Association for Play Therapy, an international professional organization. A national Center for Play Therapy has been established at the University of North Texas. Play therapy research dates back more than 45 years, providing empirical support. There have been 82 research studies done from 1942-2000 on the effectiveness of play therapy. The majority of studies included measurements of social maladjustment, with secondary priority in areas of intelligence, maladaptive school behavior, self-concept, and anxiety.
Twentieth-century research has revealed positive effects of play therapy in the areas of social maladjustment, withdrawn behavior, conduct disorder or aggression, maladaptive school behavior, emotional maladjustment, anxiety and fear, autism and schizophrenia,
Multiculturalism, self-concept, intelligence, reading, physical or learning disability, speech or language problems, sexual abuse and domestic violence, depression, post-traumatic stress, ADHD, divorce, and alcohol or drug abuse. From 2000-2009 there were two meta-analyses done on the outcome of play therapy that have contributed to the recognition of play therapy in the broader field of child psychotherapy (Bratton et al., 2005;LeBlanc & Ritchie, 2001). Overall, play therapy research continues to show strong evidence to support its use among a variation of populations and presenting problems. Current play therapy research appears to be conducted by play therapists that are well-trained in both methodology and play therapy, leading to designs that accurately explore effectiveness variables related to play therapy. Play therapy research will carry on to be strengthened through the progress of treatment manualization and description, delivery by trained professionals, and focus on specific dependent variables relevant to mental health issues among child populations.
How I See Myself in this Role
As a counselor to elementary school children the strengths that I possess to be successful in play therapy are the ability to be a friend to the child and create a safe environment in which the child can get in touch with who he/she is, what he/she is feeling, thinking, wishing and dreaming. I will not judge or interpret, but reflect on what I see and experiences with the child. I will believe in the child's ability to find a balance in his/her life, therefore helping the child to become aware of what he/she is doing and feeling to enable him to make changes if he/she wishes to do so.
The challenges of working with play therapy that I may encounter will be getting the child to trust me; children have a problem with putting trust in someone they do not know, I will build a rapport with the child first to allow the child to see that I am there to help, not harm and also another challenge I may face is of the child being resistant to treatment, if a child is resistant to treatment I will show empathy and support rather than push the child to abide by recommendations. In using play therapy I plan to use different methods; because one method does not work for all situations. As a counselor I plan to keep up with current methods, research and knowledge around Play Therapy and related subjects. I will always act in the best interests of those with whom I work; my responsibility will be to put the interests of my students as paramount, also I will uphold and take reasonable precautions to protect the confidentiality rights of my students. Play therapy is based on developmental principles and, therefore, provides, through play, developmentally appropriate means of expression and communication for children. Play allows children the opportunity to express themselves fully and at their own pace with the assurance that they will be understood and accepted. Play therapy provides the counselor in elementary-school settings with an opportunity to enter the child's world. Play therapist have to be properly trained, most therapist have a master’s in counseling, social work or psychology. Play-oriented therapy remains the dominant and most prevailing approach to child treatment. My therapeutic objective will be to change parent-child behaviors to promote safety and exploration, to build a foundation for parent-therapist collaboration, and to boost children's healthy development in a safe, unsurprising, and emotionally structured environment.
References
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