Children with special needs are often excluded because they cannot communicate and socialize properly. But actually it is not impossible for these children to grow normally and have an equal quality of life with other children. Although it does require extra effort from you as a parent. One way that you can do to help train your child's social skills is by playing play alias therapy. What are the benefits?
What is play therapy?
Play therapy is a psychotherapy method to help children aged 3 to 12 years express their thoughts, feelings, or emotions better through various games. Through this method, children can also develop empathy, behavior, and problem solving skills in a more positive way.
Play therapy is also often used as a method of approach to try to communicate and help children who are traumatized. Play therapy itself has actually been applied since 1919.
There are two approaches that can be used in play therapy:
- Therapy plays indirectly. This therapy is based on the principle that children can solve their own problems with freedom of play, using limited instructions and supervision.
- Therapy plays directly. This therapy uses more input from the therapist to help speed up results. The therapist can use the two approaches above at one time, depending on the situation.
Who needs this therapy?
Play therapy is a form of communication with children who are better able to express themselves through physical activity than through verbal communication. For example, children who have social or emotional problems from trauma that they have experienced, such as child victims or witnessing domestic violence and sexual violence, children whose parents are divorced, caught up in family crises, who have certain medical conditions or have to undergo hospitalization in a long time.
Play therapy can also help children who have academic problems, such as learning difficulties such as dyslexia and ADHD; behavioral disorders, such as difficulty controlling emotions; psychiatric disorders such as anxiety and depression; to various autism spectrums.
Depending on what the root problem is, most of these children feel afraid, reluctant, doubtful, or unable to express themselves well. This is where the role of play therapy begins. With the choice of a variety of toys that are familiar to children, therapists expect children to be easier to open up.
This therapy is usually done with the supervision of a therapist or child psychologist who has been trained to handle these cases. You can also talk to a psychologist in the hospital to ask about this therapy or which therapy is right with the problems experienced by the child.
What is done in this therapy?
As the name suggests, during play therapy children will be left in a special room that is safe and comfortable to play whatever they want. There are almost no restrictions or regulations for children while playing in this room. This aims to encourage the freedom of children to express themselves.
But usually before the child is allowed to enter the playroom, the psychologist will conduct a brief interview session with him to determine the type of game that can be used in accordance with the problems of the child.
Handicrafts, arts such as musical instruments and the choice of songs for children to dance, story books, and other game tools can be used for playing therapy for the child. Therapeutic play is usually carried out within 20 sessions, each session lasting up to 30-45 minutes. The therapist can observe how the child chooses the game and how he uses it as a way of expressing thoughts and feelings that cannot be expressed in words.
While children play, parents or caregivers will be in separate rooms accompanied by psychologists to both observe children's choices, decisions, and playing styles. The therapist will also interview parents / caregivers to dig up information about children's habits, character, and behavior in their daily lives. By comparing these two information, the therapist can then obtain instructions and determine what steps can be taken next to address the child's problem.