McGuire, Donald E., Child-Centered Group Play Therapy with Children
Experiencing Adjustment Difficulties, Doctor of Philosophy (Counseling and Student Services), August 2000, 97 pp., 24 tables, references, 89 titles This research study investigated the effectiveness of child-centered group play therapy with children experiencing adjustment difficulties. Specifically, this study determined the effectiveness of child-centered group play therapy in: (a) improving selfconcept, (b) reducing externalizing, internalizing, and overall behavior problems, (c) enhancing emotional and behavioral adjustment to the school environment, and (d) increasing self-control of kindergarten children experiencing adjustment difficulties. Also investigated were child-centered group play therapy effects on reducing parenting stress of the parents of kindergarten children experiencing adjustment difficulties. The experimental group consisted of 15 kindergarten children who received one 40-minute child-centered group play therapy session per week, for twelve weeks. Group facilitators were play therapists who were doctoral students at the University of North Texas. The control group consisted of the 14 kindergarten students that had been assigned to the control group in Baggerlys (1999) study. Before the group play therapy sessions began and after termination of the sessions: the researchers administered the Joseph PreSchool and Primary Self-Concept Screening Test; parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist-Parent Report, Self-Control Rating Scale, Filial Problem Checklist, and Parenting Stress Index; and teachers completed the Child Behavior Checklist-Teacher Report, Early Childhood Behavior Scale, and Self-Control Rating Scale.
Play has been described as a "universal and inalienable right of childhood" (Landreth, 2002, p.10). Adults sometimes refer to play as childs work to give some meaning to it, to make a comparison on how play fits into the adult world. Play, however, is the opposite of work. Work has some sort of goal and direction to it such as the completion of a task. In contrast, play is intrinsically motivated and changes to match the childs view of the world. For example, a child may use a baby bottle as a rocket ship (Landreth, 2002). Childs play is a way for children to become familiar with their environment. According to Piaget (1962), play brings together concrete experiences and abstract thought, and it is the symbolic function of play that is so important. Play is the one thing children have control of, allowing them to feel more secure (Landreth, 2002). The therapeutic process of play allows children to act out circumstances that are scary, confusing, or bothersome to them (Woltmann, 1952). Adults naturally communicate through verbalization, whereas a child's natural means of 9 expression is play. Children are not developmentally ready to use expressive language as a primary means of communicating their feelings (Landreth, 2002) and also have difficulty using abstract verbal reasoning, making it difficult for the therapist to use conventional talk therapy to help children work through their problems (Kottman, 2001). Although a childs method of emotional expression is different than that of an adult, the feelings the child has are similar, such as fear, happiness, guilt, anxiety or sadness. Therefore, toys are viewed like words by children, and play is their language. To restrict therapy to verbal expression is to deny the existence of the most graphic form of expression, which is activity" (Landreth, 2002, p. 16). Children use toys to express feelings they may be afraid to talk about. Play reveals several different aspects of a child such as, what the child has experienced, reactions to what was experienced, feelings about what was experienced, what the child wishes, wants, or needs, and the childs perception of self" (Landreth, 2002, p. 18).