Medical Play: Therapeutic Play In The Healthcare Setting

Play therapy is a form of therapy where children can’t act out their fantasies and express their feelings or experiences and are simply encouraged to do so through play, abetted by a therapist's interpretations.

Play in the sense of emotional maturity, it teaches the child how to build relationships through self confidence and self esteem. When a child occupy themselves in physical play this helps the child with with their physical coordination. A child’s cognitive development through play helps a child express their feelings and thoughts along with cultural and social understandings. Practice alphabets, numbers, colors, and shapes.

Play therapy: therapy in which emotionally disturbed children are encouraged to act out their fantasies and express their feeling through play, aided by a therapist interpretations. Not only children can unitized play therapy but also adults also can benefits from the effects of play. Because play is not just for children but for all humans. Play is a fundamental action that humans engaging, or at least should engage, in everyday. Since play leads to the emotions of happiness which makes people feel good. So main point play or play therapy can help stressed, burnout, play defiant and emotionally disturbed adults through these

When I was 18, I was involved in a car accident that almost took my life, this caused me to fall into depressive state while I attended college. The depression was due to not knowing who I was as a person without football. Before the accident every aspect of my life revolved around the sport, and I was highly scouted to come the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and play football. It was this whirlwind of emotions constantly plaguing my mind by being immersed in a place that reminded me of something that I could no longer experience. With the assistance of a counselor at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, I was able to begin healing. This was a turning point in my life, and it was these sessions that sparked my interest in the field of psychology.

Play is the universal language of children and allows children to express their emotions and individual responses to stressful situations. Play allows children to recreate crucial events that they have experienced and provides the child with a sense of control over the outcome of their play. The presence of a non-directive adult observer during play provides a companion for the child to recall difficult experiences and memories. Medical play is a way for children to work through the process of stressful medical experiences, where children cope with stressful healthcare experiences and can achieve mastery by creating positive outcomes in play. It is vital to understand coping strategies of children, since these approaches may affect their future reactions to healthcare situations. Children who have a sibling with a chronic illness can experience vicarious medical distress and their lives can be impacted by their siblings’ chronic illness. The researchers’ aim of this study was to observe and compare the reactions to medical trauma through play of children with medical illnesses, siblings of children with medical illness, and children who were healthy and did not have family members who were ill.

In this assignment I plan to explain how play helps to improve the development of children and young people. Play is extremely important for the development of children. It is important that from a young age children play with things like toys and even with other children. Between the ages of 0 – 3 is when children develop the most. Through play children can improve their fine and gross motor skills by using toys such as shape sorters and using musical tables which have buttons and things to turn. This helps to develop fine motor skills. Gross motor skills are developed through crawling and learning to walk. If children have toys that are spread out whilst

If play is a child's language, then toys can be taken as the words. With play therapy the child can resolve their difficulties and concerns utilizing the toys that they pick, exposing their inner thoughts and discussions. With play the child has the ability to check out numerous circumstances and habits in a supportive environment. Genuine favorable regard and approval urges the child to feel safe adequate to be able to discover

Children often face various mental health issues when they are growing up. These issues include anxiety, trauma, depression and now even autistic children. Treating young children of these conditions has been a great challenge over time. Therapy can help give children the opportunity to express their feelings through play. According to the Association for Play Therapy (2002), play therapy is a "systematic use of a theoretical model to establish an interpersonal process in which trained play therapists use the therapeutic powers of play to help clients prevent or resolve psychosocial difficulties and achieve optimal growth and development." Although various studies have been conducted in regards to play research, there is no link that has been given between play therapy and the success of an individual later in life.

Often, elementary school counselors are reluctant to suggest play therapy and have perceived barriers to its efficacy. This study surveyed 259 members of the American School Counselor Association about those barriers to implementing play therapy, and the potential solutions that could be used to overcome any reluctance. The typical barriers are logical: training, administration, time, resources, and space. It is not that the counselors as a whole do not believe in play therapy, it is that they cannot always find appropriate resources to implement the tool. The study raises the awareness that in the contemporary school in which budgets and resources are extremely tight, more training, educating faculty and administrators, and even using alternative or personal funds to purchase play therapy materials are often necessary to help students.

It has been documented that children undergoing surgery and their families experience high levels of distress and perioperative anxiety. Stress and perioperative anxiety have the potential to cause more harm on post-surgical healing, in consideration of both physical and mental health, if not addressed promptly and properly. Child Life Specialists are pediatric healthcare professionals who are able to provide interventions to help reduce anxiety and increase developmental growth within pediatric patients, provide family centered care, and facilitating therapeutic play interventions for pediatric patients, all the while in the hospital environment (Child Life Council, 2014). Child life specialists are able to meet these values and missions to create a standard of practice that the American Pediatric Association recommends in all pediatric healthcare settings (Child Life Council, 2014). Typically, when child life specialists are working with pediatric patients undergoing anesthesia for surgical procedures they are able to participate as a part of the multidisciplinary health team to provide family centered care and increase a patient and their families understanding on the medical procedure at hand. A common intervention for pediatric patients undergoing anesthesia for surgical procedures include medical play and medical preparation sessions.

Based on informal assessments by the clinician and parent interviews, the client presents with symptoms consistent with an adjustment disorder from disruption of family by divorce. Symptoms consistent with adjustment disorder include the development of anger outbursts and peer difficulties occurring within 3 months of his parent divorce and impairment in school, home and daycare

When a child has experienced a crisis or trauma, the play therapist should consider intensive play therapy in which the child is scheduled for play therapy sessions two or three times a week for the first two weeks in order to speed up the therapeutic process (Landreth, 2012).

As shown above having cancer can have serious social, emotional, and behavioral consequences for the child. Rae and Sullivan (2005) found that the “developmental level of the child affects how the child conceptualizes his or her hospitalization or illness.” They went on to state that therapeutic play can be used to offset the effects of developmental levels. Play therapy for children with health-related issues can prepare children psychologically for hospitalization (Rae and Sullivan, 2005). Play therapy can be done through a set of “structured or unstructured activities designed according to psychosocial and cognitive development” (Webb, 2009). Play is immensely important to children and is important for children facing this extensive treatment (Webb, 2009).. Play allows children to level the ability to deal with stressful procedures and enhances their ability to cope with the procedures to come (Rae, & Sullivan, 2005). Play provides a sense of control for these children who feel like they have no control due to all the things that are happening to them (Webb, 2009).

The article,” Child-Centered Expressive Arts and Play Therapy: School Groups for At-Risk Adolescent Girls”, by Kristi L. Perryman, Rochelle Moss, and Katt Cochran discusses the use of humanistic play and expressive art therapy combined with group therapy to help at-risk adolescent females overcome life challenging issues in middle school.

Play is a way for children to learn about their environment and how interaction occurs within. It is through trial and error that children are able to create options; follow their own interests and show “independence in thought and actions” using their knowledge and understanding (Moyles, 2005, p.3). Children develop resilience though play. However for a number of children can experience stressful occurrences during their lives and play can often be restricted. Therefore the play worker’s role in supporting children’s play is a crucial measure towards children's development. For those that work with children require the dexterity to prompt and contribute to children’s play, which can be seen as a principle aspect of therapeutic alliance.