Annotated Bibliography
- Schaefer, Charles E., and Steven E. Reid, ed. Game Play – Therapeutic Use of Childhood Games. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1986. Print.
- This book discusses how games can be used as therapeutic tools. It categorizes games useful as therapeutic tools into four categories: communication games, socialization games, problem-solving games, and ego-enhancing games. It discusses the benefits of using games in therapy (for example, children learn better if taught through a game) and goes into detail about each type of game. This book also discusses the uses of games apart from just their therapeutic value (for example, analyzing the way a child plays a game can give valuable insight into the condition they might have)
- Perez, Juan Martos, Pedro M. Gonzalez, Maria Llorente Comi, and Carmen Nieto, ed. New Developments in Autism – The Future is Today. Pentonville: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2007. Print.
- This book is a collection of studies performed to understand the Autism Spectrum Disorders better. The studies discuss things like how the ASDs inhibit the person’s ability to process things cognitively, which inhibits their ability to learn implicitly. It also discusses how some children with ASDs have significant deficits in their ability to learn to speak or even comprehend their native language.
- Warber, Adrienne. “Play Therapy Techniques.” LoveToKnow. N.p., N.d., Web. 10 Mar. 2016
- This website begins to outline a few possible techniques for play therapy. The two main techniques I saw mentioned here are DIR Floortime Play and the P.L.A.Y. Project. Both of them are very similar and involve the child (a very young child) playing with toys on the ground with the therapist.
- Thompson, Travis, Ph.D. Making Sense of Autism. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., 2007. Print.
- This book offers a lot of disambiguation over the nature of ASDs and their symptoms. It describes the difference between a disease and a disorder, the desire of some children with an ASD to have control over a random world, and disorders in children that appear similar but are actually very different.
- Schaefer, Charles E., and Kevin J. O’Conner, ed. Handbook of Play Therapy. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1983. Print.
- This book discusses several specific techniques used in play therapy. It discusses the Nondirective Play Therapy Technique, in which the child is allowed to use whatever toys they want and say whatever they want. The only restrictions in this method are based on the child’s potential to perform harmful actions towards others. As another example, the Mutual Storytelling Technique involves the child telling a story and then the therapist telling a similar story, using many of the child’s word and symbol choices, to encourage engagement and also further analysis of the situation.
- Hensley, Cassi. Personal Interview. 12 March 2016
- I was able to interview Mrs. Cassi about how she uses therapeutic games in her work. She told me that most of the therapeutic games that she uses are actually regular games that she has modified to include therapeutic pieces. She showed me a game called The Ungame, which is pretty much like Sorry but without an end goal. Instead, you keep moving around the board and answering questions from the two sets of cards that the game comes with.
- Patrick, Gary. Personal Interview. 12 March 2016
- I was able to interview Dr. Patrick about how he uses therapeutic games in his work. He told me that, while he does use them, he treats them as one of many tools rather than as the only way to treat a client. He compared it to the old saying "When you only have a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail." He mentioned that the games were effective enough, but that they usually took longer for the client to get the concepts behind the games than it would to simply explain the topics to the client. Some people need the games to learn the concepts, since just explaining it to them won't work as well, but this is something that he determines on an individual level.
- Jones, Alana. Therapy Games. Alana Jones, 2013. Print.
- This book looks at several popular games, like Monopoly, Apples to Apples, and Jenga, and provides therapists with several activities that can be performed with each of the games. For example, by writing numbers down on the bottom halves of the Jenga blocks, therapists can play several games with their clients that demonstrate a wide variety of topics, ranging from coping with the apparent unfairness of life to learning how to enjoy the moment rather than always being focused on the next thing to teamwork, as well as other topics. It also shows that a game doesn't need to be designed for exclusive use as a therapeutic tool in order to be effective.
White paper (currently rough draft)
In my Capstone paper, I decided to focus on the crossovers between play therapy and therapy used to help children with autism. In my studies, I found that play therapy is much more versatile than I had expected, and that Autism is not quite as simple as I had expected.
Autism is one of the many disorders on the autism spectrum. The other disorders on this spectrum are Asperger’s and Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified, or PDD-NOS. These disorders make up the Autism Spectrum Disorders, or ASDs. ASDs are disorders because, though people with ASDs can take medications to help with some of the symptoms, they are not “cureable” in the way that the flu or leprosy are. This is because disorders arise as a result of some sort of genetic imbalance or error rather than from a virus or bacteria. Disorders are much more like someone being born with a crippled leg, or missing a few or all of their fingers; there is no magic drug or treatment that will give them use of their leg or give them real fingers, but there are many tools you can use to help these people live close to normal lives. In a similar manner, we won’t be able to cure the ASDs until we have the ability to completely rewrite the human body, but we do have the ability to provide the people with ASDs tools to help them live normal lives. In Making Sense of Autism, Dr. Thompson mentions that the ASDs are a set of similar syndromes. He then goes on to explain what he means by this: “The term syndrome refers to the association of several features, signs, symptoms, or characteristics that often occur together…” This means that, despite the many variations within Autism and the ASDs, doctors can usually discern whether or not a child has an ASD simply by looking for these specific symptoms. Of the three disorders, Autism is the strictest in terms of what qualifications are needed to diagnose a child with that specific disorder, followed by Asperger’s and finally the PDD-NOSs.
There are other disorders that resemble the ASDs but aren’t quite the same. These include Global Developmental Delays (like Down Syndrome), ADHD, Specific Language Impairment, Landau-Kleffner Syndrome (where a child suddenly loses all their skill in a language), and OCD. This is because most of these disorders stem from an inability or hindered ability to process information cognitively, meaning that little implicit learning goes on. Another way in which ASDs and OCD are similar is that in both cases, the child with said disorder is likely to feel a strong need to control the random, chaotic world around them. One specific therapy technique that I discovered was to give the child with an ASD or even OCD full control over some aspect of their life that they care about deeply but that is very inconsequential to you.
Play Therapy is a specific kind of therapy that focuses more on playing with the child rather than the traditional sort of therapy we think of with the chair and the notepad. Play therapists differ from behavior therapists in that the behavior therapists tend to focus on getting the child to behave very well in a specific setting, whereas play therapists focus more on getting the child to behave better in a wide variety of circumstances. Play therapists utilize a wide variety of techniques that generally fall under at least one of four categories: Communication, Socialization, Problem-Solving, and Ego-Enhancing. As an example, communication games are best used with a child who is incredibly shy or has difficulty speaking their mind. Many of these kinds of games try to take emphasis off of the competition part of the game and instead focus on the actions taken within the game. For communication games, this may take the form of answering questions on cards drawn, as is the case in The Talking, Feeling, and Doing Game. The questions asked in this game are specifically tailored towards helping kids grow comfortable with sharing their opinions, as most of the questions are asked about someone else, allowing a child to answer their opinions on behalf of another rather than on their own, where they usually feel attacked. Nondirective Play Therapy, or NPT, is another example of a good therapeutic tool. In NPT, the child is given free reign over a room full of toys he or she can play with. The only rule for the child to follow is that they cannot do anything to harm anyone else; any other actions and all words are fair game. Some variation of this technique even allow for the parents to be the facilitators of this playtime, although they are closely watched by professional therapists at the same time. The Mutual Storytelling Technique, in which the child tells the therapist a story and the therapist responds by telling the child a similar story with much of the same syntax and symbolism, is another effective tool for therapy. One of the most interesting therapeutic techniques I discovered was called Battling Tops or Battling Space Ships. The description of this technique sounded very much like the Beyblade toy that’s somewhat popular today.
There are many benefits to using play therapy with kids. First and foremost, careful analysis of how a child plays a game can reveal the types of disorders a child has, allowing for more accurate treatment. Along with diagnosis, kids just learn better when playing games, so teaching a child via their therapy game sis a very powerful tool. Most children do not choose to put themselves in a therapist’s proverbial chair, and as such feel intimidated by the therapist; playing a board game with that child allows them to grow comfortable around the therapist. Finally, using play therapy can help reduce the amount of conflict a child has with their therapist. Nearly every child with a need for therapy tries to pull their therapist into their problems at least once in their lifetime. Since games can be seen as physical representations of the emotional ties between the players, playing a game with a child in therapy can prove to be very effective in their treatment.
With my project, I hope to be able to design a board game that can be used as an effective play therapy tool, and perhaps even one that can be used with children on the ASD. As I have already shown, there is a fair bit of overlap in the two, so it is not an impossible task; however, I need to be sure that the game is actually helping and won’t harm the children’s development and progress in any way.
Autism is one of the many disorders on the autism spectrum. The other disorders on this spectrum are Asperger’s and Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified, or PDD-NOS. These disorders make up the Autism Spectrum Disorders, or ASDs. ASDs are disorders because, though people with ASDs can take medications to help with some of the symptoms, they are not “cureable” in the way that the flu or leprosy are. This is because disorders arise as a result of some sort of genetic imbalance or error rather than from a virus or bacteria. Disorders are much more like someone being born with a crippled leg, or missing a few or all of their fingers; there is no magic drug or treatment that will give them use of their leg or give them real fingers, but there are many tools you can use to help these people live close to normal lives. In a similar manner, we won’t be able to cure the ASDs until we have the ability to completely rewrite the human body, but we do have the ability to provide the people with ASDs tools to help them live normal lives. In Making Sense of Autism, Dr. Thompson mentions that the ASDs are a set of similar syndromes. He then goes on to explain what he means by this: “The term syndrome refers to the association of several features, signs, symptoms, or characteristics that often occur together…” This means that, despite the many variations within Autism and the ASDs, doctors can usually discern whether or not a child has an ASD simply by looking for these specific symptoms. Of the three disorders, Autism is the strictest in terms of what qualifications are needed to diagnose a child with that specific disorder, followed by Asperger’s and finally the PDD-NOSs.
There are other disorders that resemble the ASDs but aren’t quite the same. These include Global Developmental Delays (like Down Syndrome), ADHD, Specific Language Impairment, Landau-Kleffner Syndrome (where a child suddenly loses all their skill in a language), and OCD. This is because most of these disorders stem from an inability or hindered ability to process information cognitively, meaning that little implicit learning goes on. Another way in which ASDs and OCD are similar is that in both cases, the child with said disorder is likely to feel a strong need to control the random, chaotic world around them. One specific therapy technique that I discovered was to give the child with an ASD or even OCD full control over some aspect of their life that they care about deeply but that is very inconsequential to you.
Play Therapy is a specific kind of therapy that focuses more on playing with the child rather than the traditional sort of therapy we think of with the chair and the notepad. Play therapists differ from behavior therapists in that the behavior therapists tend to focus on getting the child to behave very well in a specific setting, whereas play therapists focus more on getting the child to behave better in a wide variety of circumstances. Play therapists utilize a wide variety of techniques that generally fall under at least one of four categories: Communication, Socialization, Problem-Solving, and Ego-Enhancing. As an example, communication games are best used with a child who is incredibly shy or has difficulty speaking their mind. Many of these kinds of games try to take emphasis off of the competition part of the game and instead focus on the actions taken within the game. For communication games, this may take the form of answering questions on cards drawn, as is the case in The Talking, Feeling, and Doing Game. The questions asked in this game are specifically tailored towards helping kids grow comfortable with sharing their opinions, as most of the questions are asked about someone else, allowing a child to answer their opinions on behalf of another rather than on their own, where they usually feel attacked. Nondirective Play Therapy, or NPT, is another example of a good therapeutic tool. In NPT, the child is given free reign over a room full of toys he or she can play with. The only rule for the child to follow is that they cannot do anything to harm anyone else; any other actions and all words are fair game. Some variation of this technique even allow for the parents to be the facilitators of this playtime, although they are closely watched by professional therapists at the same time. The Mutual Storytelling Technique, in which the child tells the therapist a story and the therapist responds by telling the child a similar story with much of the same syntax and symbolism, is another effective tool for therapy. One of the most interesting therapeutic techniques I discovered was called Battling Tops or Battling Space Ships. The description of this technique sounded very much like the Beyblade toy that’s somewhat popular today.
There are many benefits to using play therapy with kids. First and foremost, careful analysis of how a child plays a game can reveal the types of disorders a child has, allowing for more accurate treatment. Along with diagnosis, kids just learn better when playing games, so teaching a child via their therapy game sis a very powerful tool. Most children do not choose to put themselves in a therapist’s proverbial chair, and as such feel intimidated by the therapist; playing a board game with that child allows them to grow comfortable around the therapist. Finally, using play therapy can help reduce the amount of conflict a child has with their therapist. Nearly every child with a need for therapy tries to pull their therapist into their problems at least once in their lifetime. Since games can be seen as physical representations of the emotional ties between the players, playing a game with a child in therapy can prove to be very effective in their treatment.
With my project, I hope to be able to design a board game that can be used as an effective play therapy tool, and perhaps even one that can be used with children on the ASD. As I have already shown, there is a fair bit of overlap in the two, so it is not an impossible task; however, I need to be sure that the game is actually helping and won’t harm the children’s development and progress in any way.