Play Therapy in School Counseling and the Effectiveness
Madeline Polanco
Saint Peter’s University
Abstract
This paper has three articles that have positive and negative results from research in play therapy in school counseling. Play therapy is developmentally responsive to a child’s social, emotional and development. It is to help child resolve problems through play. Play therapy is different than regular playing it helps the child learn and communicate. It helps the child express feelings, control their behavior and helps with problem solving. Play therapy can help a child with destructiveness in the classroom.
Play Therapy in School Counseling and the Effectiveness
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If children with mental health problems, do not receive the help they need at an early age it might lead to more serious problems in adulthood. Some of the problems that they might have in the future are emotional, anxiety, problems with the law, academic failure, substance abuse and depression. Early therapy such as play therapy can help. Speaking to parents and having teacher consultations with the school counselors will help students with problems. School counselors need to find ways to communicate with students to find the best approach in getting the best …show more content…
It helps the parents understand ADHD. Adlerian Play Therapy focuses on learning the family life of the child while also learning how everyone in the household communicates. The counselor sets up scenarios for the child to illustrate. This helps the family understand what problems and difficulties the child might have because they have ADHD. In the article written by Walen, Teeling, Davis, Artley, & Vignovich, two boys are received counseling through Adlerian Play Therapy. One boy is named Andrew he is 8 years old and has disrupted the class many times. The other boy is named Grayson and he is not able to focus and learn in the classroom. Both boys are compared in the experiment. Both students were recommended by their teacher and both boys received therapy for six weeks. Andrew received 11 sessions 4 were group sessions and 7 were individual sessions. The sessions for Andrew focused on controlling and following rules. Andrew preferred in being in charge, he was loud, boisterous. He would try to behave but often made mistakes and when he did the mistakes he upset him, so he would misbehave. He was generous, kind and listened to others. Three treatment goals were developed for Andrew: (a) reduce his desire and need for perfection, (b) increase his Crucial C of connect, and (c) increase constructive ways of getting attention (Walen, Teeling, Davis, Artley, & Vignovich, 2016). His reason for being
Play therapy gives a safe and caring environment for the child to play with a small amount of limitations; which promotes physical and emotional safety. There is no medication used in this type of therapy. “Play and creativity operate on impulses from outside our awareness – the unconscious.” (playtherapy.org) There many benefits to play therapy for children. It helps children “develop respect and acceptance of self and others, learn to experience and express emotion, and learn new social skills and relational skills with family.” (a4pt.org) It would be important to have Maria’s father included in her treatment. Therapists recommend for every person in the child’s life to be part of the child’s therapy but at the least they would like to create a plan with the caretaker to resolve issues and keep track of
Rye N. Child-Centred Play Therapy. In: JH Stone, M Blouin, editors. International Encyclopedia of Rehabilitation. 2010.
Wehrman, J. D., & Field, J. E. (2013). Play-Based Activities in Family Counseling. American Journal of Family Therapy, 41(4), 341-352. doi:10.1080/01926187.2012.704838
Rodger, S., & Ziviani, J. (1999). Play-based Occupational Therapy. International Journal Of Disability, Development & Education, 46(3), 337-365. Additional Information:
In this article Pereira (2014) focuses on techniques that can be used to include children in family therapy. This article specifically refers to children who are 6 years or older, being that the techniques used may be too complicated for younger children to understand. Most therapists struggle to find ways to actively engage children in family therapy due to the differences in level of verbal expressions, as well as differences in life experiences (Pereira, 2014). To make family therapy more effective for all members of the family, play is often incorporated.
School psychologists work with students, parents, teaching staff and administration to address issues about learning, behavior and social concerns. When children have been exposed to instability or trauma in their lives. Early prevention and intervention are critical in determining their future well-being. Sadly, many children who have mental health issues have them diagnosed and/or treated by pediatricians, school psychologists
Both types of therapies had the specific elements that PCIT wanted to convey. One element was an emotional calm that play therapy produced in work with children. However, the calm play that the therapist and child do inside session, is far from the relationship that the parent and child may have outside therapy. By training the child’s parent to provide behavior therapy, enables treatment benefits to be longer-lasting. The use of play therapy in parent-child interaction strengthens the parent-child attachment and provides the child greater exposure to the calming therapy with their own parent. However, play therapy is not the only appropriate intervention when it comes to disciplining children. Parents get the skills need to deal with the behavioral issues by the live parent training, for setting limits and drawing back from tough discipline (Funderburk,
Like the latter, an essay by Gray, P. (2016) also showed researches on play deficit. He found out that most professionals who succeeded and happy are those who were not deprived in playing. He then concluded that, play deprivation is not good for children and other things. It promotes anxiety, depression, narcissism, loss of creativity and
Play directly influences how children develop both emotionally and socially. Children learn how to express their emotions and cope with their feelings as they experiment with different characters in their play. Play gives children a “harmless outlet to their built up aggression” (CHETN). This is displayed when a child becomes angry, upset, or stressed about a situation in their lives; these young children may not be old enough or have the proper communication tools to communicate what they are feeling. Therefor they may choose to play with objects that depict the emotions that they are feeling and attempt to cope. Simply said, a child will use play to explain how they are feeling rather than acting out in a negative fashion (Wehrman 351). This not only works for the child when expressing emotions, it can also be effective for whole families in coping with emotions. When families come together and play they may be “less analytical and intellectual and more ...
The logic behind this method was to get the children to be able to express themselves accurately by being comfortable and not pressured to do or say anything. When adults go to a psychologist most of the time they lay on a couch and talk about what they are feeling in order for the psychologists to understand what the patient is feeling. Young children cannot do this therefore, Klein established the play technique so children could be analyzed in the same way as adults (Melanie Klein Trust, 2015). This technique allowed “insight into early development” of young children making way for most of Klein’s later theories and work, which develops a whole new section of child psychoanalysis (Melanie Klein Trust,
The children are put through different learning experiences and tasks, for the professionals to evaluate and observe their different development stages. All this helps to understand the children’s adult characteristics for future life as every child’s play experiences are crucial to their adult life.
This theory suggests that play plays a vital role of treating children’s disorders, children are able to gain some sense of control and alleviate their negative emotions including anxieties, fears and traumas through playing (Heidman & Hewitt, 2010; Freud, 1961). From the psychoanalytic perspective, play has a cathartic effect for children as it can assist children to cope with adverse feelings (Wolfberg, 2009, p. 32). Therefore, play is regarded as a therapeutic method to deal with the emotional problems (Wolfberg, 2009, p. 32). Moreover, this theory is of the view that play is an avenue to connect children’s past, current and future inner life (Willians, 2009, p. 575). Sigmund Freud was the pioneer who made a considerable contribution to this theory and he called “play” as the “royal road” to the child’s conscious and unconscious world (Willians, 2009, p. 575). He believed that play allows a combination of fantasy with reality, children should spend time playing every day as it is very healthy and necessarily (Willians, 2009, p. 575). Children are able to resolve psychological dilemmas, soften their worries and develop their understanding of life experiences (Wolfberg, 2009, p. 32). Erikson had further developed this theory, he recognized that the particular events are critical to shape the nature of
This is a counselling method used to help youngsters communicate their inner experiences through using toys and play. Nondirective play therapy is a non-pathologizing technique founded on the belief that youngsters have the internal drive to attain wellness (Petruk, 2009). Play therapy is grounded on the theory that play is a youngster’s language, the toys considered the words a youngster uses to express or show their inner experiences and how they experience and perceive the world. Within a play session, and throughout the course of sessions, themes develop in the youngster’s play, giving the therapist insight into the child’s feelings, thoughts, experiences, and interpretations of their world (Petruk,
The most agreed upon technique used when counseling children is play. Play activities is as important in child counseling as verbal communication is in counseling adults (Pothier,1976). Play is a child’s natural method of self-expression and communication. A vast majority of young child’s free time is spent in play through which he (sic) explores
In Kindergarten school, some parent believes play is the best way for young children to learn the conceptions, skills, and set a solid foundation for later school and life success. In the other hand, many parents disagree and believe play is a waste of time, messy, noisy, and uneducationall. I believe play is not waste of time, but it something worth to fight for, in this presentation I would show parent the main importance of some of the numerous kinds of play, and why play is a fundamental basis for improving children’s ability to succeed in school and life.