Over the years we have noticed play therapy has been declining in popularity. Play therapy is used for children who do not know how to express themselves especially for children who do not speak. During the process of play the child can "tell" the therapist how they feel and why they are behaving the way they are. The children use play in order to speak to their therapist. The therapist respond with tracking, tracking is a way to keep the child engaged and a way to let the child know that you are listening. For example, Charlie a 12 year old boy started using play therapy because his mother realized after the father left the family and he was also paralyzed. He expressed his feeling through the stuffed animals that he had played with. Overtime the therapist realized it was his emotions in the stuffed animals. Charlie soon started to act happy again.
Boyle-Toledo, K. (2019, February). Why play? Thoughts on evidence-based
treatments and why play therapy is still relevant. The Brown University
Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter , 35(2), 1-7. Retrieved from Child
Development and Adolescent Studies database.
It seems that the mother ignored the obvious signs as to why her son was acting like that. How do you think the sons actions would have changed if his mother put twp and two together earlier.
ReplyDeleteThis article gives great reasoning as to why play is so detrimental to children.During this article, I learned new information including the term, "Tracking". The example in the article of the 12 year old who was having trouble interacting, to being happy once more shows how play therapy is so crucial for a struggling child. Over all this article is very informative and I am now convinced that play therapy should be newly introduced.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely shows the importance of play therapy in a childs life. Neglect or abandonment can cause detrimental effects on the child's behavior and mental state. Although it isn't always easy to detect, if the mother would have realized sooner she could've prevented this damage in the childs mental health at this point in time. This could be an issue that although seemed fixed, could still be a negative memory for the child forever.
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