Child’s Play: The Role of Play in Mitigating the Fear of Death Among Pediatric Palliative Care Team Patients, Families, and Caregivers

Terror Management Theory (TMT), derived from Ernest Becker's The Denial of Death (1974), maintains that humans are motivated by the desire to overcome our fear of death by constructing meaning and significance in our lives in various ways, including making light of our mortality. In this paper, we examine the...

Developing a Teddy Bear Therapy Training Program for Family Therapists

Teddy bear therapy (TBT) represents an innovative application of family therapy within the context of child, and specifically play, psychotherapy. Drawing on play and storytelling, it entails the therapist and the (referred) child telling a story about a teddy bear that is facing difficulties similar to the child's. Together, therapist...

Play therapists’ perceptions of wellness and self-care practices

The importance of professional helpers' wellness and self-care has received significant attention in the past decade and is even considered an ethical obligation by many organizations for professional helpers. Play therapists, compared with providers of other treatment modalities, might be more susceptible to professional and personal impairment because they bear...

Evaluating a supported nature play programme, parents’ perspectives

Concern has been raised recently in relation to excessive use of digital technology and the detrimental effect this has on familial relationships, well-being and development, andon people's connection with nature. This article provides a timely response to†this concern by presenting the findings of a qualitative evaluation of†a supported nature play...

A child-centered play therapy workshop for professional elementary school counselors: An exploratory study

The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the experiences of professional school counselors participating in a play therapy workshop as an introduction to child-centered play therapy (CCPT). Constructivism led this qualitative study to describe six professional school-counselor participants' perceptions of CCPT and their experiences in attending the play...

Improving Chinese Teachers’ Stress Coping Ability through Group Sandplay

Teachers are burdened by high work pressure, suggesting the need for an effective stress coping system to support them. The present study evaluated the effectiveness of coping strategies currently utilized by teachers and explored the potential contribution of group sandplay to coping. The study was led by a group of...

Developmental Exposure to Low Levels of Ethinylestradiol Affects Play Behavior in Juvenile Female Rats

Juvenile social play contributes to the development of adult social and emotional skills in humans and non-human animals, and is therefore a useful endpoint to study the effects of endocrine disrupters on behavior in animal models. Ethinylestradiol (EE2) is a widely produced, powerful synthetic estrogen that is widespread in the...

Reading aloud, play, and social-emotional development

OBJECTIVES: To determine impacts on social-emotional development at school entry of a pediatric primary care intervention (Video Interaction Project [VIP]) promoting positive parenting through reading aloud and play, delivered in 2 phases: infant through toddler (VIP birth to 3 years [VIP 0-3]) and preschool-age (VIP 3 to 5 years [VIP...

Encouraging kids to hop, skip, and jump: Emphasizing the need for higher-intensity physical activity in childcare

Introduction: Daily physical activity (PA) participation is crucial to the health and well-being of young children. Along with total physical activity (TPA; all-intensity), moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), or energetic play, is associated with greater health benefits, particularly for preschoolers (3–4 years), including but not limited to improved bone and skeletal...

Creating and integrating relevant educational cartoons with scenario-based learning strategies to impart long-term ethics learning

Active and interactive learning are considered harbingers to life-long learning and many have recommended appropriate integration of technology and teaching methodologies to impart authentic learning. It is of utmost importance that classroom teaching be relevant and should involve potential real-life ethical situations that the students may face in the workplace....

Playful learning: Tools, techniques, and tactics

Over the past decade, there has been an increased use of playful approaches to teaching and learning in higher education. Proponents argue that creating 'safe' playful spaces supports learning from failure, management of risk-taking, creativity and innovation, as well as increasing the enjoyment of learning for many students. However, the...

Factors related to the use of play therapy among elementary school counselors

School counselors are often the first professionals to become aware of the mental health problems of young children. Given that play therapy is the most developmentally appropriate approach for elementary school-age children, it is important to understand why some school counselors use play therapy and others do not. The purpose...

Child-Centered Play Therapy: Aggression, Empathy, and Self-Regulation

The authors conducted a randomized controlled trial to investigate differences among 36 elementary school age children who received 16 sessions of child-centered play therapy and 35 children who were assigned to a waitlist control group. Pre- and postassessments were used to measure children's levels of aggression, self-regulation, and empathy per...

Child-Parent Relationship Therapy with Extra-Familial Abused Children

Sexual abuse by a perpetrator outside of the family is the most prevalent form of child sexual abuse. It is associated with serious consequences for both the child and his family. Surprisingly, however, the issue of extra-familial sexual abuse has received very little research and clinical attention. The purpose of...