The problem with which this investigation is concerned is that of determining whether previously untrained, non-professional personnel, in this case mothers, can be trained to undertake and cope with the responsibilities of a play therapy situation with their own children. The hypothesis of this study is that by placing mothers in such a situation, the mother's ability to communicate with her child will be modified as well as modifying the child's perception of her as a warm and accepting parent.

If there are to be more and improved recreational facilities for the handicapped, recreation planners, landscape architects, and architects must collect, analyze, and project pertinent data into comprehensive criteria for facility development. To develop the criteria, personal notes from site investigations and project developments were correlated with information from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; the National Therapeutic Recreation Association; the American Association on Mental Deficiency; and the National Recreation and Park Association.

Call number: LD2668 .P7 1974 H55

I present a research based project that asks for a discussion about the role of technology in education. It is a question about how to design learning experiences and how to improve the experience of learning through interactive objects. More precisely, this project tries to explore the possibilities of an embodied learning of math using music in a playful way. Superbleeper, the name of the product, is an electronic music instrument that is played using math concepts. It invites 3-6 year old children to play with the math they have to understand according to the Swedish curriculum. This math foundation for the youngest kids is about measurement, shape, patterns, time, change, quantity, sets and order. The tests carried out with children in different contexts show that electronic music can be a way to embody and enjoy the use of math concepts in a creative way. / Pedagogical Interactive Math Visualizations

Following a similar pattern of the classic Biblical story of “The Prodigal Son”, the play allows for a modernization of the characters and setting. Set in 1968, the playwright takes a look at what happened after the “Prodigal Son” returned home as well as the effect the return had upon the Son that stayed as well as the Father. How can family relationships survive in the midst of lies and turmoil of a time of great change in America’s history.

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Much effort has been expended to increase the awareness and understanding of play therapy among consumers and practitioners (Landreth, 1991) since its introduction by Virginia Axline during the 1940s. As with any form of counseling, Leblanc and Ritchie (1999) have noted there are factors considered key to successful play therapy treatment outcomes. Play therapy research shows a positive relationship between parent's involvement in play therapy and successful outcomes (LeBlanc & Ritchie, 1999; Bratton, Ray, Rhine, & Jones, 2005) but little research exists to document specific practice patterns and perceptions of play therapists in relation to achieving caregiver engagement. The purpose of this study was to identify the practice patterns of play therapists, their perceptions of the factors that influence caregiver engagement, their perceptions of the relationship between caregiver engagement and the therapeutic outcome for the child client, and their perceptions of the barriers to achieving caregiver engagement in play therapy. The Caregiver Engagement Inventory (CEI), a 36-item, structured and semi-structured questionnaire developed for this research, was electronically sent to 4854 members of the Association for Play Therapy (APT), resulting in 539 responses, 431 of which were deemed appropriate for inclusion. Of the 423 participants who responded, 292 (69%) strongly agreed and 107 (25%) agreed that caregiver engagement is related to a child’s therapeutic outcome in play therapy. Fifty-three percent (n=228) of respondents strongly agreed that they are prepared to facilitate caregiver engagement in play therapy, and 35% (n=151) agreed. These results suggested that, while 94% of play therapists who responded believe caregiver engagement is a large factor in successful play therapy outcomes, only 88% of the participants feel prepared to accomplish the task with caregivers of their child clients. The results indicated a relationship between training and play therapists’ practice patterns related to caregiver engagement, but participants reported minimal exposure to training specific to working with caregivers in both their graduate programs and workshops. Findings indicated that play therapists value caregivers’ roles in play therapy; however, barriers exist to caregiver engagement. Implications for play therapists, educators of mental health professionals, and future research are discussed. Keywords: play therapy, caregiver, engagement

This thesis places art heists in the context of their journalistic and online commentaries to examine their implications for subversive anti-capitalist criticism. The 2012 Rotterdam Art Heist functions as a case study that demonstrates how online trolling participates in the production of a culture that undermines the conventional dualisms between popular and high culture. By linking crime and its commentaries to game and performance theories the thesis promotes pop culture against its devaluation by 20th century cultural critics Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin. Hence, it argues for folklore’s role in critically rethinking the scholarship on the work of these acclaimed cultural critics. Anti-establishment perspectives are set against bourgeois moments in the Frankfurt School’s critical theory.

Iludens! - a concept-opera comprises conceptual essay and music portfolio. The conceptual essay explores musical, dramatic, and ritualistic aspects that qualify play as a structuring factor in culture. It aims at producing a multi-layered amalgamation of Philosophical Anthropology and Art, focusing on the strategies for creating a new piece of music - in this case, a conceptual opera (or performative oratorio). The music portfolio features several pieces composed by me throughout the doctoral period. Some pieces have a more direct connection to my doctoral research. The largest and most important one is the concept-opera Iludens, through which I developed patterns of aesthetic creation inspired by philosophical conceptions related to the notion of play. Also, as agon1 is one of the crucial aspects I was able to identify in the history of play, I have explored some agonistic features in culture and provided an interpretation of elements of conflictive interaction using the tools of contemporary concert music. The conceptual essay and the main piece of the music portfolio are intimately related. I consider music according to the Greek classic notion of mousiké, namely an entity of multiple knowledge and applications, rather than a mere craft of physical sounds.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore methods of learning and teaching cultural theory that differs from the traditional classroom-based methods. Using Jacques Derrida’s “Structure, Sign and Play,” I designed and created a videogame prototype that engages Derrida’s ideas in an interesting and accessible way. This thesis explores how the concept of play can be applied to theory, and how the use of play can allow a deeper and more thorough understanding of theory. These methods were born from a criticism of the elitism witnessed in both contemporary society and academia, as well as a desire to make theory, especially cultural theory, accessible to a wider audience. / Graduate