Change Through Play Intervention Essay

This intervention is an appropriate intervention to apply to children who are experiencing stress and anxiety. For example, a therapist is presented with a child who recently became an older sister. The new baby brother has caused some anger within the client as she expresses aggressive behavior towards her mother, father, and brother. Although it is a common reaction among children who were only-children, the child is expressing feelings of abandonment and fear that her parents don’t love her as much as they once did. When the therapist implements this intervention, it allows the child to feel attended, safe, and accepted by the therapist. Through art, the child is able to visually recognize those individuals who make her feel loved, which in return, will help alleviate her fears and anxieties. By combining the play intervention and the therapist’s implementation of the concepts within the theory, the child’s presenting problem will improve.
Change Through Play
Bills (1950) investigated the effects of nondirective play therapy on poorly adjusted slow readers and found that after play therapy sessions, the group showed significant gains in their reading ability. Barlow, Strother, and Landreth (1985) reported on the case of a 4-year old child whose emotional reactions were so severe that she had pulled her hair out until she was completely bald. By the end of her play therapy sessions, previously reported behavioral symptoms had disappeared and her hair began regrowth. Another study reflected a 6-year old boy’s struggle in accepting his grandfather’s death. Nearing the fifth play therapy session, he was able to express awareness and acceptance of his grandfather’s passing (Ray, Stulmaker & Lee, 2013). These studies are a small reflection of the large impact child-centered play therapy has on the potential change in a child’s