Play therapists use children’s natural symbolic play as a method of mental health treatment (Landreth, 2012). Meta-analysis research has demonstrated the effectiveness of treating children with play therapy (Bratton, Ray, Rhine, & Jones, 2005), and child-centered play therapy (CCPT) has proven to be an effective treatment for children with externalizing behaviors such as aggression and other disruptive behavior (Bratton & Ray, 2000; Bratton et al., 2005). Some studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of brief and short-term CCPT, such as twice weekly within two to three months (Blanco & Ray, 2011; Shen, 2002) and when delivered in an intensive format, conducting 12 sessions within three weeks (Jones & Landreth, 2002). In this current study, I sought to determine the effectiveness of intensive CCPT with children identified as having externalizing problem behaviors. Participants were recruited from public schools in the urban area of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia area. A total of 24 participants completed the study: 18 boys and 6 girls aged 6 to 9 years old (M = 7); 17 Australian Caucasians, 1 English (UK) Caucasian, 1 Asian, 3 Hispanic/Latino, and 2 Biracial. Participants were randomly assigned: 12 to the experimental group and 12 to the wait-list control group. Children in the experimental group received 20 intensive CCPT sessions: twice daily for 10 days. For each child participant, a parent completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and a teacher completed the CBCL Teacher’s Report Form (TRF) three times: at pretest, posttest, and one-week follow-up. Mixed between-within ANOVAs were conducted applying an alpha level of .05 to interpret statistical significant and η2 calculation to assess practical significance. Follow-up results indicated a statistically significant interaction effect on CBCL Externalizing score, F (2, 44) = 14.747, p < .001, with a large effect size of η2 = .277. Results also indicated a statistically significant interaction effect on the TRF Externalizing score, F (2, 44) = 4.042, p = .024, with a large effect size of η2 = .135. Therefore, both parents and teachers indicated that children with externalizing behaviors who received intensive CCPT showed a significant decrease in those behaviors. The results of this study indicate that when time and financial resources call for short-term, intensive CCPT for children with problematic externalizing behaviors, practitioners may use it with confidence that its effectiveness has been demonstrated through this research.

Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA (DVS) / Capabilities as espoused by Sen are the realizable opportunities that are open to an individual that enable her to be or do that which she finds reasonably valuable. This study assessed the work-care arrangement capabilities that single mothers in Gugulethu have at their disposal to undertake a juggling arrangement schedule that they find satisfying (fulfilling). In this study, single mothers were asked to affiliate themselves to one of three work-care arrangement groups namely, work-centered, child-centered and flexible. Then, the study empirically examined if there is a significant difference in respondents' work-care satisfaction within these three groups. It accomplished this by using the Kruskal-Wallis Test. The study then went on to identify the work-care arrangement capabilities of 7 single mothers who were undertaking juggling arrangement schedules that were not of their preference or choice. They were interviewed in this study to ascertain whether they had viable opportunities/ capabilities to undertake their preferred juggling arrangement schedule, which they believed would bring them much personal fulfilment/satisfaction.

Virginia Axline developed a new field of child psychotherapy by applying a nondirective approach to the burgeoning experimentation of utilizing play in therapeutic work with children. While much biographical information is available regarding other leaders in the fields of counseling and psychology, historical research into Axline and her development of child-centered play therapy represent a gap in the literature. The purpose of the current study was to: 1) examine the professional contributions of Virginia Axline; 2) gather personal information regarding Axline that contributes to deeper understanding of her theory; and 3) identify life circumstances or events that influenced Axline's professional contributions. Historical methodology was utilized to locate and examine artifacts and materials necessary to create an interpretive biography of Axline's life and work, with a focus on her professional influences, experiences, and contributions. Historical methods utilized include historiography, oral history, and interpretive biography, with an emphasis on established and accepted source criticism and data synthesis processes. The research yielded a number of historically significant and previously unknown documents valuable to the field of CCPT including personal correspondence, academic writings, and interviews, as well as academic and government records. The research also established new information about and understandings of several of Axline's professional relationships. The research also calls into question the original authorship of scholarly contributions in the field of counseling for which Axline may have deserved, but not received credit. Included in the biography is information related to Axline's early life, higher education, career timeline, professional development, mentoring relationships, research interests, student perceptions, collegial relationships, personal hardships, professional interests and advocacy, teaching and learning methods, and her decline in later life.

BRITO, Rosa Ângela Cortez de. A criança como Outro: uma leitura ética da Ludoterapia Centrada na Criança. 2012. 139f. – Dissertação (Mestrado) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Programa de Pós-graduação em Psicologia, Fortaleza (CE), 2012. / Submitted by Márcia Araújo (marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2013-11-25T14:48:59Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2012-DIS-RACBRITO.pdf: 1142285 bytes, checksum: b21f65921989c6fe5fff0cdf53e8ae2d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Márcia Araújo(marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2013-11-25T17:20:29Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2012-DIS-RACBRITO.pdf: 1142285 bytes, checksum: b21f65921989c6fe5fff0cdf53e8ae2d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-11-25T17:20:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2012-DIS-RACBRITO.pdf: 1142285 bytes, checksum: b21f65921989c6fe5fff0cdf53e8ae2d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / The Child-Centered Play Therapy, understood not only in the Axline’s original proposal, but also from the VanFleet, Sywulak and Sniscak’s perspective, has as its premise the notion that the play is a ludic dialogue that promotes the expression of feelings and the expansion of possibilities in the child’s life. The therapy would help the child to identify, recognize and express his/her feelings. The therapist should, therefore, have the skills to enable a safe space for the child’s expression. This ability is understood by Amatuzzi as an ethical previous disponibility. For a philosophical perspective of the ethics of the Child-Centered Play Therapy, it is taken as basis the Lévinas’ ethics of radical alterity, who proposed the responsibility as subjectivity’s structure. The ethical condition would be developed by the openness and availability to the Other, towards the Other’s difference. The non-conceptuable levinasian Other, human being’s antecedent and transcendent, establishes an asymmetric relationship with the Same. From these perspectives, it presents the guiding question of this research: what is the place for the radically Other in Child-Centered Play Therapy? To answer this question, the following general objective was traced: analyze the place reserved to the Other in the Child-Centered Play Therapy. The specific objectives are: inquiry the relation between otherness and subjetivity, based on levinasian ethics, in the Child-Centered Play Therapy; to develop a new reading of Child-Centered Play Therapy, based on radically Other. The chosen methodology was the Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics, which proposes the fusion of horizons between the author and the interpreter in order to create a new horizon of comprehension. From the similarities between the Person Centered Therapy and the Ethic of radical alterity, developed by Vieira & Freire and Schmid, it is presented as result that there is a place to the levinasian Other in the Child-Centered Play Therapy, as long as the therapist is openness and disponibility to the trauma that represents the arrival of the child in his/her absolute difference. It is also verified that the child who comes to the attendance, therefore, would be understood as the levinasian Other, whom the therapist is called upon to respond. To enable the therapist openness, he/she (the therapist) should experience permanent processes of inadequacy in the face to face relationship with the child. Grateful for the support of the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) in the development of this research. / A Ludoterapia Centrada na Criança, aqui entendida não somente na proposta original de Axline, mas também a partir da ótica de VanFleet, Sywulak e Sniscak, tem como postulado a noção de que o brincar é um diálogo lúdico que propicia a expressão dos sentimentos e a expansão das possibilidades na história de vida da criança. A terapia ajudaria a criança a identificar, reconhecer e expressar melhor seus sentimentos. Cabe ao terapeuta, portanto, apresentar habilidades que possibilitem um espaço de segurança para a expressividade da criança. Essa habilidade do terapeuta é compreendida por Amatuzzi como uma predisponibilidade ética. Para que a ética da LCC seja pensada em seu viés filosófico, toma-se como base para este trabalho a ética da alteridade radical de Lévinas, que propôs a responsabilidade como estrutura da subjetividade. A condição ética dar-se-ia na abertura e disponibilidade ao Outro, à sua diferença. O Outro levinasiano não conceituável, antecedente e transcendente ao ser, estabelece uma relação de assimetria com o Mesmo. Partindo dessas perspectivas, apresenta-se a questão norteadora desta pesquisa: qual o lugar destinado ao radicalmente Outro na Ludoterapia Centrada na Criança? Para responder tal questionamento, o seguinte objetivo geral foi traçado: analisar o lugar destinado ao Outro na Ludoterapia Centrada na Criança. Os objetivos específicos são: a investigação entre alteridade e subjetividade, a partir da ética levinasiana, na Ludoterapia Centrada na Criança; a realização da releitura da Ludoterapia Centrada na Criança, a partir do radicalmente Outro. A metodologia utilizada é a hermenêutica filosófica de Gadamer, que propõe a fusão de horizontes entre autor e intérprete para a criação de um novo horizonte de compreensão. A partir das aproximações entre a Abordagem Centrada na Pessoa e a Ética da alteridade radical, realizadas por Vieira e Freire e Schmid, apresenta-se como resultados a existência de espaço para o Outro levinasiano na Ludoterapia Centrada na Criança, desde que o terapeuta seja abertura e disponibilidade ao trauma que representa a chegada da criança em sua diferença absoluta. Verifica-se, também, que a criança que chega para o atendimento se apresenta como Rosto, que remete ao Infinito e à transcendência do Outro. A criança, portanto, seria entendida como o Outro levinasiano, a quem o terapeuta é intimado a responder. Para que a abertura do terapeuta seja possibilitada, este deve vivenciar processos permanentes de inadaptação no face a face com a criança. Presta-se agradecimentos pelo apoio da Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) no desenvolvimento deste trabalho.

Children’s rights are a world wide clarion call – yet, when it comes to implementing it in practice, the hearts of everybody starts racing because suddenly the issue is not just academic, it’s personal. In practice it is evident that children’s voices are not being heard or taken into consideration – while adults are solely responsible for making decisions that affects the lives children have to live. Children continue to suffer and are being traumatised due to the fact they have to live a life decided by adults who presumed to know the best. The fact that there is no consistency when working with children, specifically during the legal process, has been experienced as a serious problem. Research was undertaken to rectify the situation. The hypothesis for the intended study was formulated as follows: A protocol that can be followed by professional role-players can ensure that children’s rights will be protected during a legal process. The key professional role-players involved with children during a legal process have been identified as social workers, commissioners of child welfare, lawyers, family advocates and judges. In the qualitative study, a semi-structured schedule was utilized as guide for the personal interviews with each of the respondents. From this data, a protocol was developed and evaluated after implementation in order to determine whether such a protocol will enable the professional role-player to protect the rights of children during a legal process. The quantitative results proofed that a protocol as a hands-on guideline, is a much needed tool for the professional role-player in practice. From the study it was concluded that the existence of a protocol will enable the professional role-player to protect children’s rights during a legal process. Important recommendations included the following: <li>Specific skill training of the professional role-players in working with children.</li> <li>The value of implementing a separate family court system, involving all the professional role-players.</li> <li>The different professional role-players should respect each other’s profession, their abilities and skills and perform as a team to the benefit of the children in the legal process. Working against each other is to work ego-centered in stead of child-centered.</li> / Thesis (DPhil (Social Work))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Social Work and Criminology / unrestricted

Aggressive behaviors in childhood currently serve as the leading cause of counselor referrals within the United States. Children exhibiting maladaptive aggressive symptomology are at an increased risk for highly externalized and problematic behaviors across the lifespan. Emotional self-regulation and empathy are two constructs currently believed to be closely related to aggression, but a lack of research exploring these variables currently exists in the counseling literature. In this study I examined the effect of child-centered play therapy (CCPT), is a manualized, developmentally responsive, and nondirective intervention, on these variables. Participants were 71 students from four Title 1 elementary schools in the southwest U.S. referred by teachers for aggressive behavior (12 females, 59 males; age range 5-10 years with mean age 6.28. The sample consisted of 52.1% (n = 37) children identified as African American, 21.1% (n = 15) as Latina/Latino, 19.7% (n = 14) as Caucasian, and 7% as multiracial (n = 5). Participants were randomly assigned to 8 weeks of a twice-weekly CCPT experimental group (n = 36) or a waitlist control group (n = 35). Results of descriptive discriminant analyses (DDA) of the Social Emotional Assets and Resilience Scale and the Children’s Aggression Scale scores revealed that parents perceived children’s group membership in CCPT as significant and reasonably predictive of improvement in children’s aggression, self-regulation, and empathy. However, teachers did not perceive a statistically significant difference between the two groups with respect to these variables. These results suggest the relevancy of CCPT for parents in providing children with a developmentally responsive intervention to reduce aggressive behaviors and support their healthy development.

African American children experience risks due to heightened socio-environmental problems and responding to negative racial messages in their environments. Child Centered Play Therapy (CCPT) is one viable intervention for the development of social emotional competence among African American children to help mediate adverse conditions. I sought to explore the effects of CCPT on the social emotional competencies of African American children utilizing Social Emotional Assets and Resilience Scale-Parent & Teacher (SEARS-P; SEARS-T) reports. Thirty-seven African American participants with a mean age of 6.68 years were recruited from four suburban elementary schools in the southwest U.S. Twenty participants were randomly assigned to the intervention group receiving a mean of 13.3 CCPT sessions over 8 weeks, and 17 participants were assigned to the waitlist control group. Factorial ANOVA results indicated that parents reported statistically and practically significant improvement for children who participated in CCPT in overall social-emotional competencies. Follow-up analysis revealed statistical and practical improvement in children’s empathy, as well as practical improvement in self-regulation/responsibility and social competence. Teacher-reported results indicated practical but non-statistically significant improvement in overall social-emotional competencies for children who participated in CCPT, including statistical and practical improvement in children’s responsibility, as well as practical improvement in self-regulation, social competence, and empathy. Thus, CCPT showed promise as a culturally responsive treatment intervention to improve African American children’s social-emotional competencies

Background: The capacity in the country's pediatric intensive care units is limited, which means that a large number of children are cared for in general intensive units. Intensive care nurses must be able to care for all patients with failure in one or more organs and be able to assess changes in the patient's condition. The care of children differs from the adult patient in several ways. For the intensive care nurse, it can be an inexperienced situation. Previous research describes the perspective of nurses in the pediatric intensive care unit and parents of a sick child, as well as children's experiences of being a patient. Aim: The aim is to describe intensive care nurses experiences of caring for children up to the age of seven years in a general intensive care unit. Method: A qualitative interview study with inductive approach. Eight intensive care nurses from a intensive care unit in Mellansverige participated. Data was analysed using manifest content analysis. Results: The results are presented in two categories; “Being in an unusual situation” and “Meeting the child’s needs with the family as a resource”, each category has two subcategories. Conclusion: Intensive care nurses experience the care of children as challenging. A common thread in the result is to work from the child's perspective and needs. The theoretical perspective is prominent in the result although the concept of child centered care is not mentioned. The need for knowledge and experience is clearly prominent in intensive care nurses which demonstrates the importance of competence development within the area of operation.

Barns rätt till delaktighet i sin vård och behandling framhålls av barnkonventionen, riktlinjer för hälso- sjukvåden och svensk lagstiftning. Delaktighet i vården har stor betydelse för barnens välbefinnande och hälsa då delaktighet bidrar till en känsla av kontroll som minskar oro och stress vilket också stärker barnets självkänsla i att kunna hantera andra stressfyllda händelser senare i livet. Trots teoretisk samsyn och lagstiftning visar forskning att barn inte alltid får anpassad information eller får komma till tals och att det är svårt att i praktiken veta på vilket sätt barn vill vara delaktiga i sin vård och behandling. Syftet med litteraturöversikten var att undersöka på vilket sätt barn vill vara delaktiga i samband med vård och behandling på sjukhus. Metoden som använts är en systematisk litteraturöversikt med kvalitativ ansats. Dataanalysen följde Bettany-Saltikovs &amp; McSherrys (2016) modell av tematisk analys för kvalitativa litteraturöversikter. Resultatet visade att barn önskar vara delaktiga genom att förstå och kunna påverka sin situation på sjukhus. De önskade känna sig betydelsefulla och få sin önskan hörd samt att vårdpersonalen, sjukhusmiljön och att bli inkluderad i samtal hade en betydande roll för upplevelsen. Varje barn är unikt och har olika behov, vilket stärker vikten av ett barncentrerat förhållningssätt där vårdpersonalen bör göra individuella bedömningar i varje given situation. Resultatet i föreliggande litteraturöversikt kan användas för att öka barns delaktighet i vården och kunskapen kan tillämpas av alla professioner inom hälso- och sjukvård. / Children's right to participate in their care and treatment is emphasized by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, guidelines for health care and Swedish laws. Participation in health care is of great importance for children's well-being and health as participation contributes to a sense of control that reduces anxiety and stress, which strengthens the child's self-esteem in being able to handle other stressful events later in life. Despite theoretical consensus and legislation, research shows that children do not always receive appropriate information or have a voice and that it is difficult to know in practice how children want to be involved in their care and treatment. The aim was to investigate how children want to be involved in their hospital care and treatment. The method used was a systematic literature study with a qualitative approach. The data analysis followed Bettany-Saltikov &amp; McSherry's (2016) model of thematic analysis for qualitative studies. The results showed that children want to be involved by understanding and influencing their situation in the hospital. They wish to feel important and have their voice heard and that the health care staff, the hospital environment and being included in conversations had a significant role in their perception. Each child is unique and has different needs, which reinforces the importance of a child-centered approach where health care professionals should make individual assessments in each given situation. The results of this study can be used to increase children's participation in health care and the knowledge can be applied by all health care professionals.

The current study is the first repeated-measures design exploring the impact of child-centered play therapy (CCPT), an evidence-based child psychotherapy intervention, on autistic children's social-emotional assets, and emotional and behavioral problems across four times during intervention based on teacher reports. Participants consisted of 19 autistic children recruited from two Title-1 elementary schools in the southwest United States who were aged between 5 years and 8.25 years (M = 6.22, SD = .91), presented with varied levels of cognitive functioning and speech and language abilities. Over 60% of participants were identified by their parents as children of color. Results indicated participants' increased time in CCPT predicted statistically significant improvement in social-emotional assets measured by Social-Emotional Assets and Resilience Scales-Teacher (SEARS-T) total score with a large effect size. Results also indicated participants' increased time in CCPT predicted a statistically significant reduction in emotional and behavioral problems of irritability, social withdrawal, and hyperactivity/ noncompliance, measured by Aberrant Behavior Checklist-Second Edition (ABC- 2), with large effect sizes. Findings of this study revealed substantive changes in social-emotional assets as early as 8 CCPT sessions, and reduction of emotional and behavioral concerns as early as 12 CCPT sessions. Clinical significance, implications for practice, and limitations of the study are discussed.