The purpose of this study was to determine the core skills/methods and practicum experiences play therapy experts and professors believe to be essential in the education of the beginning play therapist in the specific areas of theory and history, terms, organizations, authors who have contributed to the field, methods, skills, training in special populations, practicum experience, and advanced skills. Two questionnaires were used to obtain opinions from play therapy experts and play therapy instructors. The first questionnaire was sent to twelve play therapy experts to obtain their opinions on the core curriculum and experiences necessary for training a play therapist in an introductory play therapy class, practicum experience, and advanced play therapy training. Frequencies and means were obtained and used to delete and add items for Questionnaire II. Questionnaire II was sent to 180 play therapy professors. Fifty play therapy professors returned the instrument. The ratings on Questionnaire II given by the professors were used to provide curriculum guidelines for developing a play therapy program. This program includes an introduction to play therapy course, play therapy practicum experiences, and advanced skills and advanced practicum experiences.

This study was designed to determine the effectiveness of intensive play therapy as a method of intervention for child witnesses of domestic violence. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of intensive play therapy in: (a) improving the self-concept of child witnesses of domestic violence; (b) reducing internalizing behavior problems, such as withdrawal, somatic complaints, anxiety, and depression, of child witnesses of domestic violence; (c) reducing externalizing behavior problems, such as aggression and delinquency, of child witnesses of domestic violence; (d) reducing overall behavior problems, including internalizing and externalizing behavior problems, and social problems, thought problems, and attention problems, of child witnesses of domestic violence; and (e) improving play behaviors in the areas of affection, contact, physical proximity, self-direction, aggression, mood, play themes, and food nurturing themes.

The purpose of this study is to see the difference between the genders when it comes to freeplaying but also to see the differences in the predestined games in a multicultural school. Myresearch question has been answered through observation of the students from a genderperspective to see both the differences but also the similarities. I have observed the students inboth outside and inside environments to see the differences. I have also read literature aboutgender and used those when working through the material from the observations.The result I got was consistent with the literature I read that boys and girls choose activitiesbased on stereotypical activities for each gender. The result also showed that sometimes theboys and girls chose an activity that is outside of their stereotypical activity. Furthermore,when boys and girls are playing the same game separately the rules tend to change.To conclude we could see that the predetermined activities were good for the most part butsometimes there were children who did not want to try an activity that is associated with theother gender.

Children’s outdoor play is decreasing. One factor is children's increased use of technology. Contributing to an existing research project, Hållbara Lekmiljöer i Staden by Uppsala University and KTH, the aim of this research project is to investigate the potential role technology could play in children’s outdoor play if integrated within outdoor environments. A further aim of the project is to understand how children use and repurpose (appropriate) their surroundings for play, and whether evidence of one child's play can influence a future child’s play. After a review of relevant literature and previous work, the project conducted a workshop to understand how children conduct outdoor play. Through analysing the behaviours and activities of the children during this workshop (obtained via observations and interviews), three play patterns involving natural materials emerged. These include collecting materials, constructing structures using the materials, and destroying materials. The former two, alongside appropriation and technology, became themes for ideation and inspired the design process, which ultimately produced The Drum. The Drum is a digital-physical play artefact that allows children to create patterns based on their combination and types of touch interactions. Children used the technology to facilitate their play, successful appropriations due to three design features: a recognisable output medium, portability, and small design. However, these features were unable to influence future play and behaviour due to the lack of development of The Drum and the research setup. Therefore, further development of The Drum and a better research setup are suggested as actions for future work.

This single case study provides a detailed description of a 7-year-old sexually abused child's sandplay, describes prominent themes in the child's sandplay, and concurrent family transitions and events. Included are reflections and meanings that the therapist attributed to the sandplay. Child-centered play therapy was the guiding theory for the therapy. Thirty-six consecutive therapy sessions are examined in this study. The therapy sessions were divided into three phases that were tied to significant life events and changes in the sandplay content and process, along with the therapist-child interactions were explored in each of the phases. There were many significant changes in the content and process of the child's play. He went from primarily using nonliving miniatures to using primarily living miniatures in his sand worlds. Specifically, the use of people and animals increased in his third phase sandplays. The categories of miniatures the child used also increased from one predominant category in the first phase to four or more miniature categories in the third phase. The child's sandplay moved from primarily static play to increasingly dynamic play. Changes in the child's play are linked to changes in his living environment. / Master of Science

Family Play Therapy is a creative therapeutic approach to engage children in therapy in the context of their family system. While the young field of family play therapy offers both the benefits of family therapy and play therapy, research concerning its efficacy is largely unavailable. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the experience of family play therapy in context of child sexual abuse treatment, from the perspective of child clients and their parents. A secondary purpose of this descriptive study was to provide contextual data to inform future quantitative research on family play therapy. In separate, semi-structured and open-ended interviews, eight children and their non-offending parents described their therapy experience of the family puppet interview intervention, in which they created and acted out a story with puppets. Participants' descriptions of their experience revealed five broad themes: (1) the perceived benefits of play (what participants liked), (2) parents feelings about play as a medium, (3) parent's perceived role in the session, (4) children's thoughts about family participation in therapy, and (5) suggestions for improvement. A discussion of the findings' relevance to previous literature, clinical practice and future research, as well as the limitations of this study is provided. / Master of Science

Recent studies and research demonstrate the importance of play and play-based learning. There are many articles that have shown that play is an essential component of a child's development. Play-based learning is even more important for children with disabilities. Without play, special needs children may develop learning deficits that complicate the disabilities they are already experiencing. The benefits of play are inextricably related to the environments in which it occurs. Play environments need to be carefully designed to ensure that children are able to realize the full benefits of play. In the United States, public play areas are abundant. However, do these play areas stimulate the development of children? Have they been designed to be inclusive to those with special needs? The need to have play areas that are truly accessible is further amplified by recent statistics, which show that there is an upward trend in the number of U.S. students with disabilities. Consequently, there is a significant need for play spaces that are stimulating and inclusive to children of all abilities. This paper highlights the importance of play, play environments, and disability play. It provides an overview of disabilities in children and their effects on play. It critically examines the current state of play in America. Based on literature review, historical information, and critical analyses of existing play areas, this paper advocate for nature-based playgrounds. Through the design of a play landscape that is nature-based and inclusive to children with Autism, this paper demonstrates significant advantages of nature-based inclusive play space design and advocates for such play spaces over traditional play spaces designed with man-made materials. / Master of Landscape Architecture / Play is often dismissed as something that children engage in when they are young. Play is actually extremely important to a child’s development. Play contributes to physical, cognitive, emotional, and social well-being of children. This paper highlights the importance of play for all children, including those with disabilities, and underscores the significance of a well-designed play environment in a child’s development. Play areas are abundant in the United States. The goal of this research is to understand whether such play areas are designed to help children realize the full benefits of play, and whether such play areas are inclusive and accessible for children with disabilities. Given the rising prevalence of autism in children, a nature based playground design that is inclusive for children with Autism is presented in this paper. The framework and design considerations presented here can be replicated to any generic play site to create a much more stimulating and inclusive play environment.

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This paper deals with the relatively new business model for digital games called Free toPlay and how aspects of that business model can affect the players gaming experience. Thestudy is done through user studies with the use of interviews, observations and diaries. Forour analysis of the data we’ve looked for themes and then categorized the data intoelements from the CEGE Model by E.H Cavillo-Gámez et al. that we use to measure howFree to Play affects the Core Elements of the Gaming Experience. The paper concludes thatwhen measuring gaming experience and business model together one might have to add asub-element that represents the business model, which can affect the elements all togetheror one by one.

The problem of study concerns whether the video self-confrontation technique would have a beneficial behavioral effect on children engaged in play therapy, as had previously been demonstrated on adults receiving psychotherapy. Using this technique, videotape equipment records a patient during a therapy session after which the patient is confronted with the reality of his own image and behavior. The objectives of the video technique are to accelerate insight and positive behavior change.