Presentations: 1
Starting with the January 2018 issue, earn non-contact continuing education credit by completing tests based upon the International Journal of Play Therapy®.
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APT. The Association for Play
Therapy (APT) offers continuing education specific to play therapy. APT
Approved Provider 95-100 maintains responsibility for the program.
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The current study examined the effect of Filial Therapy (FT) on interaction of deaf mothers with their hearing children. Participants were recruited from association and center of deaf people in Isfahan, Iran. The participants were 30 deaf mothers and their hearing children who selected by convenient sampling method. They were randomly divided into the intervention and control groups and each group included 15 mothers and children. The intervention group received 11 FT weekly sessions for 3 months, while the control group did not receive the intervention. Mothers completed the Child- Parent Relationship Scale (CPRS) 2 times, at pre and posttest phases. Results of MANCOVA revealed that FT significantly influenced the interaction of mother-child scores, F (1, 29) = 42.69, p < 0.001. Accordingly, it can be suggested that interaction of deaf mothers with their hearing children was significantly increased following the FT intervention.
Play Therapy Primary Areas:
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This randomized repeated-measured active control group study examined the efficacy of Child-Teacher Relationship Training as a mental health intervention in rural Head Start programs with at-risk children. Experimental group child participants demonstrated statistically significant decreases in total problem behaviors when compared with active control group children. All child participants exhibited improvements in targeted behaviors with small-to-moderate treatment effects. The findings indicate that CTRT positively influences children’s problem behaviors with implications for rural mental health interventions.
Play Therapy Primary Areas:
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Child bereavement is a difficult topic to explore and study because of stigmas indiscussing death, and because of restrictions in doing research with young children.Thus, research in childhood bereavement is limited. This study focused on children whoattended a bereavement camp after the traumatic loss of a loved one. The purpose wasto understand the participants’ grief experiences. This research study usedphenomenological inquiry and analysis methodology. Five female participants wereinterviewed for this study. In addition, participants created a sandtray world to conveytheir experiences at bereavement camp. The essence of participant’s experiences asrevealed through verbal interviews was posttraumatic growth. In addition, the essence ofparticipant’s experiences as revealed through their sandtray worlds was gaining a senseof support. Results of this study extend bereavement research to include the experiencesof children. Further, implications for professional counselors, counselor educators, andbereavement camps are emphasized.
Play Therapy Primary Areas:
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Although Latino children represent about 25% of total enrollment in the elementary school setting across United States (Musu-Gillette et al., 2016), they continue to be underrepresented in receiving mental health services (Martinez, Arriola, & Corvin, 2016; Ojeda, Flores, Rosales, & Morales, 2011; Sixbey, An, & Puig, 2017). This is concerning given that Latino children face risk factors that puts them at-risk for socioemotional and academic problems (Vazsonyi & Pan Chen, 2010). In addition, there is a scarcity of research regarding the effectiveness of mental health interventions for Latinos (Ojeda et al.). Although play therapy has been supported as an effective intervention for Latino children and their parents (Ceballos & Bratton, 2010; Garza & Bratton, 2005), more research is needed to establish play therapy as an evidenced based treatment for this population (Ojeda et al.). Thus, this article provides practical guidelines for play therapy researchers to maximize recruitment efforts, minimize attrition rates, and address important cultural values within the research. Specifically, the authors address the impact of cultural values, the acculturation level, language challenges, considerations for participant recruitment, set up of the playroom, advocacy, and social justice when conducting research with Latino populations.
Play Therapy Primary Areas:
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Nature is a powerful partner in the counseling process; however, it is not always feasible to take clients outside for sessions. Nonetheless, practitioners may still involve nature within the counseling process by integrating natural materials within the counseling room. In this article, the integration of natural items within the playroom will be discussed, along with the presentation of a case illustration, and exploration of implications for practice and research.
Play Therapy Primary Areas:
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Play therapists inevitably work with traumatic death loss at some point in their careers. Unfortunately, most play therapists are not specialty-trained in traumatic loss, creating a treatment gap with this unique population. Although traditional methods of play therapy are empirically effective for traumatic death loss, adjustments in intake, toy selection, and termination can greatly enhance the therapeutic process. This article reviews the short- and long-term impacts of traumatic death loss, with a discussion of developmental processes and reactions to this painful experience. A detailed description of toy selection and traumatic play themes are discussed along with types of play demonstrated by traumatically bereaved children.
Play Therapy Primary Areas:
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Play therapists have become sensitized to interpersonal trauma and its varied presentations and consequences. Children who experience frightening and painful medical procedures may become traumatized by these experiences. Personnel working in inpatient medical facilities are presumably familiar with emotional and behavioral presentations of pediatric medical trauma. However, underlying pediatric medical trauma may be overlooked in outpatient play therapy settings. This article describes the clinical case of a young child whose relatively severe emotional and behavioral problems masked medical trauma. Examples of thematic play sessions are presented to illustrate the child’s underlying trauma and the process of play therapy that led to considerable improvement. The importance of the play therapy relationship is emphasized. Play therapists are encouraged to consider the presence of pediatric medical trauma when assessing young children with histories of medical intervention.
Play Therapy Primary Areas:
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This article describes a pilot study for a play-based intervention designed to support the development of social competence of youths with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that includes play with the video game, Mine craft. Four boys with ASD, ages 11–13, participated in play with the video game during 8 1-hr sessions with a typically developing peer and 2 adults during structured play (role-based objective play) and free play (no roles or objectives) with video modeling, adult facilitation, and mediation from a typically developing peer. High rates of initiations were maintained during structured play; the quality of social play started as weak during free play but improved by the later sessions. Implications of the results for practitioners and researchers are discussed.
Play Therapy Primary Areas:
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The field of child-centered play therapy has long recognized the value of play for children’s growth and development, however other fields of inquiry have come to realize the value of play as well, such as play-based social interventions for youth with autism spectrum disorder. Despite the differences between the theoretical and pragmatic applications of child-centered play therapy and play-based social interventions, the purpose of this work is to orient a play-based social intervention study with child-centered play therapy approach. In particular, this work will discuss the theoretical and pragmatic approaches of the two fields with emphasis on 2 factors of play: (a) play materials and (b) permissiveness. Additionally, the play experiences of 1 boy, Enoch, are reviewed through the typical stages of child-centered play therapy, to demonstrate how permissive play with technology-based play materials functions in play-based social interventions.
Play Therapy Primary Areas:
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Marginalized children are often excluded from mainstream social, economic, cultural, and political life because of ethnicity or poverty. These children are more likely to have behavior problems that place them at risk later in life. The impact is evident at an early age. The purpose of this article was to review the literature that examined the impact of child-centered play therapy (CCPT) conducted with marginalized children. The literature was reviewed with regard to the results of the studies, the outcome variables used, the identification of who completed the assessments about the children, and the ethnicity of the play therapists who conducted the interventions. The findings demonstrated that CCPT is effective for marginalized children, externalized behaviors are most frequently assessed, teachers most frequently completed the assessments about the children, and the ethnicity of the play therapists is not usually reported. The results are considered in terms of implications for play therapists and future research.
Play Therapy Primary Areas: