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ASSESSMENT PLAY
Assessment play is usually the first form of play used when a child comes for play therapy.
Assessment play allows the therapist to examine the child’s skills, level of development, emotional intelligence, verbal skills, and mastery, as well as bio-physical, cognitive, perceptual, emotional, cultural, behavioural and motivational factors.
Assessing all these factors enables the therapist to determine the reactions that the client has to a stressful event and it is a good way to get to know the child.
Most often therapeutic board games are used in assessment play. Board games allow for observation for the child's thought processes, feelings, behaviour, verbal skills, attention span, perception, body language, purposiveness, expression of feelings, and the child's level of development.
CREATIVE PLAY
“Painting and drawing, especially in the counseling setting, activate growth and change; that is, the images and symbols a child uses are both safe “containers” and “transformers” of emotions and feelings. Once painful images have been expressed in this way, new growth occurs both in the conscious and the unconscious.”
Creative play involves projections. A projection is where the child will place his own feelings onto something else. In creative play, projections are placed onto drawings, clay or sand. These are creative play mediums. Projections are symbolic, exploratory, sensory, and or, manipulative play, and help the client to work through the traumas in his life. Children use projections to get rid of feelings or own certain feelings; to try something new in a safe way; or to escape into a fantasy, which can act as a safe place.
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Encourages the ventilation of feelings
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Creates an atmosphere for further therapy
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Is relaxing
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Promotes communication
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Provides the therapist with information
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Leads to insight
Drawing/Painting
Many therapists analyze drawings however in Gestalt Therapy the child is the analyst, as only the child can truly express how he feels or thinks. In Gestalt Therapy it is not for the therapist to make assumptions, judgments, or interpretations but rather to discuss the drawing with the child. The therapist will ask questions such as “Is there a story about the drawing?”, “Does the house, tree or person have a wish?”.
Clay or Play Dough
Clay is a very tactile and sensory experience. It is pleasant to touch and manipulate and the child will often using the clay. It is a satisfying experience that enables even the child who feels unsure or hesitant about creativity, to be creative.
Clay is cathartic in nature as it allows the child to express an array of emotions. The therapist uses clay by encouraging the child to make a projection, a sculpture which can have specific instructions such as “make a sculpture of how you are feeling right now” or “make a sculpture which is like you when you lived in your foster home”, or the child can be allowed to make a sculpture of anything they feel like making.
Sand Tray Work
Sand tray work allows the child to use symbols to tell their story within a boundary of the sand tray. Sand tray work enables the child to re-enact the story using the symbols and it allows the child to use their imagination and explore fantasy.
The sand is another very tactile and sensory medium in play therapy and most children enjoy using the sand tray. The therapist usually invites the child to choose some miniature figures and create a sand scene. The therapist may take a non-directive approach or may direct the client to make a scene about the specific problem.
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BIBLIO PLAY
Biblio play encourages the development of insight and working through feelings. Biblio play is very useful for short term counseling or in an environment where there is not a lot of time to spend on cases as it encourages communication and is directive in nature, it directs the conversation towards the problem and thus speeds up the therapeutic pace.
Biblio play includes reading, writing, life books, letter writing, maps, calendars, magazines, pictures, comics, diaries etc.
Advantages of biblio play
Leads to insight
Encourages verbalization
Serves as indirect communication between the therapist and child
Can enhance the therapeutic relationship and increase the child’s motivation
Reduces feelings of isolation due to it’s normalizing factor
Provides a clearer perspective with regards to the problem
Presents a symbolic environment where the child can control feelings, circumstances, wishes and thoughts
Provides alternatives for problem solving
Provides models for positive behaviour
Prevention of problems
Emotional release and catharsis
Teaches emotional vocabulary
DRAMATIC PLAY
Dramatic play, or pretend play is the natural play of children. Children love to pretend to be someone else, the doctor, a teacher, and their own mother. This type of play is part of normal development in children.
Dramatic play enables the child to grow by allowing him to act out problems and situations in a safe environment. Dramatic play calls on sight, sound, taste, touch, smell, facial expressions, movement, imagination and fantasy, as well as intellect. In acting out different people in our lives and the different sides of ourselves, we become more aware of our self in the present.
Role-playing, puppets, dolls and dolls house, dance and movement, telephone play are all part of dramatic play.
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