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Play Therapy Essays and Research Papers

Instructions for Play Therapy College Essay Examples

Essay Instructions: This paper must start out explaining the basic principles of Therapeutic Recreation, how it works, what it is, and who it benefits. Once that is explained it must go into greater detail about how it can benefit children most specifically.

Once thats done, three other things must be introduced, Play therapy, Pet-Assisted Therapy (ZOO Therapy), and adapted Therapeutic Horseback Riding. Each of these three must be explain in great detail. Its important to link these three types of therapy to children with special needs, mainly Autism. For each type of therapy, the therapist will work on specific goals designed for their client, these must be mentioned and briefly explained.

The paper shouldn't be so much of a research paper, but a way to explain these types of therapies, in an attempt to explain to people my role as a Therapist. This paper should be written through the point of view of the therapist.

Excerpt From Essay:

Essay Instructions: Annotated Bibliography:
Using your library or other sources, select five peer-reviewed
articles that relate to your topic and create an annotated bibliography for
each. This is usually a paragraph for each, but as you will see, this will
finish the literature review for a research topic.

Sample of how the annoyed bibliography should be written is below:
Annotated Bibliography
Bratton, S. et al. (2013) ?Head Start Early Mental Health Intervention: Effects of Child-Centered Play Therapy on Disruptive Behaviors? in International Journal of Play Therapy, Vol. 22, No. 1, 28?42.
The article ?Head Start Early Mental Health Intervention: Effects of Child-Centered Play Therapy on Disruptive Behaviors? aims at pointing out the necessity of further action from the medical staff as well as a different approach to dealing with disruptive behaviors in children. It is based on a pilot study that ?examined the effectiveness of child-centered play therapy (CCPT) with 54 low income preschool children (42% African American, 39% Hispanic, and 18% Caucasian) identified with clinical levels of disruptive behaviors.? (Bratton et al, 2012) There are several issues to consider in the approach provided by the article. On the one hand, the article takes into account play therapy when dealing with disrupted children, which is child-focused and may eventually bring more positive results in general rather than a line medical treatment. On the other hand, it is important to underline the fact that children coming from broken families, low-income households or special needs have a tendency to manifest different types of disruptions largely because at such early ages the level of vulnerability is higher than in older children and changes or shortcomings tend to impact them more than in other situations.

Ebrahim, C., et al. (2012). Overcoming School Counselors? Barriers to Play Therapy.
International Journal of Play Therapy. 21 (4): 202-14, DOI: 10.1037/z0029791
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.

Haslam, D., Harris, S. (2011). Integrating Play and Family Therapy Methods: A Survey of Play
Therapists? Attitudes in the Field. International Journal of Play Therapy. 20 (2): 51-65, DOI: 10.1037/z0023410.
This research focused on 295 members of the Association for Play Therapy and their attitudes that relate to working with families when treating children. The results showed that the majority of play therapists were positive about working with families, particularly when trying to work out a difficult situation. However, barriers do exist in the sense that many therapists are reluctant to integrate family and child therapy because they are not completely convinced that all parents are willing to take the time, energy and patience necessary to be included in sessions with their children. Many of these therapists postulate that play therapy is a way for children to work out issues, and family therapy is a way for families, not necessarily individuals, to express their anxieties. The research suggests that improvements may be needed in play therapy education to help give tools that support a more family centered approach.

Excerpt From Essay:

Title: Child observation report

Total Pages: 2 Words: 537 Bibliography: 0 Citation Style: APA Document Type: Essay

Essay Instructions: Hello Writer!
I am enrolled in Developmental Psychology course and take it as a pre-requisite to my program, which is not that much related to this course.
In this course they discuss 50% of the time Piaget?s Cognitive-Developmental theory, as well as some other theories (behaviorism, psychosocial, information processing, etc..)
This work is considered to be a major assignment for this course, but I am running out of time.
I am a full-time working mom and in my age most of my friends have children (mostly second children) in pre-school age.
I understand that creating a hypothetical child observation is not that straight-forward task, but I believe that you have access to many observation reports like this and can compile something.
Please do not worry about:
?Setting: Describe the background and the setting of each of your observation sessions. Include how you made the arrangements and with whom. Detail your own behavior during the sessions, including where you were in relation to the child and how your presence seemed to affect the child?. .. Informed Consent and so on.
Just write something what is natural and logical, I will adjust your text if needed later to any of suitable family with young kids (I have a lot of options ? and a huge experience of observing kids as mom, aunty, friend ). My problem is writing. I am running out of time and English is not my first language. Using your writing as a template I will be able to adjust and ?customize? your version.

I have attached the Article, an extract of Piaget?s theory from text book, the same for Vygotsky theory (for just in case).
I?ve also attached that part of text book where they are talking about various research designs, so that you know in which terms those designs are described in this course.
The Text Book they use is : Seventh Edition ?Infants, Children and Adolescents? Laura E. Berk
The assignment manual with all details and marking matrix is attached as well.
Please let me know if any questions or concerns asap.
If writing about some hypothetical child observation is a bit too challenging, in this course they suggest Option 2, which is a comparison and contrasting of 2 theories and discussion of 6 research articles supporting those theories (3 per theory). My Tutor believes that Option 2 involves much more serious literature observation and she has given a sort of hint that Option 1 is easier. But if you really prefer Option 2 as more ?theoretical? task, please let me know asap. I will send to you all the information.
Please note, that in Assignment Option 1 (child observation) they are asking for 4-7 references other than the text book.
Those should be articles and researches from PsycINFO. Please include them, I trust your professionalism.
I have come across one article where they are discussing play therapy for 3y-old children in the context of Piagetian developmental stages. I have included it for just in case you would find it suitable for citation.
Thank you so much! Please do not hesitate to contact me. I can discuss all your concerns and questions with the tutor (from myself, of course) to make sure that the work is done in accordance with tutor?s understanding of what should be done.
Thank you once again!

Excerpt From Essay:

Essay Instructions: PLEASE ONLY ASSIGN TO WRITER # writingptb.

Text books used for the class
Herman, J. (1992)
Trauma and Recovery
PerryBruce
(2008)
The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog
Vandernoot Lipsky, L. & C. Burk (2009)
Trauma Stewardship


This paper should be no more than 10 pages (# 12 font) double spaced, not including the reference page. You will need 5 APA cites. You can use the two required texts, articles from the WEB CT for the course, your own researched materials or materials from advanced clinical electives. You CANNOT use 1st year foundation course texts. Although you will use the DSM-IV for this paper, you should have five other cites.

The point of this assignment is: 1) to apply theory to practice and 2) put one of your trauma cases under a microscope and think critically about it. You can write about a client (child or adult) who has experienced childhood trauma. The trauma itself need not have been discussed in the therapy. As long as the trauma informs your formulation, your ideas about what the problem might be, that is good enough. You can write about a person from you internship or paid employment. YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO WRITE ABOUT YOURSELF, A FAMILY MEMBER OR A VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE.

Presenting problem: Try to keep this to a half-page speaking in broad terms. I don?t need a lot of detail unless there is something so specific (ie the offender died after the disclosure or the child was not believed) that it becomes integral to the treatment. Essentially answer: Why did this person seek (or was referred to) treatment? What is his/her trauma background?

Differential Diagnosis: Do all Five Axis. Walk me through your decision making process. Write about other diagnoses you considered and why you ruled them out. If your agency has already diagnosed the person, you can disagree with them. If your agency does not require a diagnosis (ie public schools), you still need to do this part of the paper. Are there any organic or biological contributions to the problem (ie genetic inclination, lead poisoning, head injury, Fetal Alcohol Effects just to name a few)?

Macro Analysis: What are the strengths and weaknesses of the larger systems that the person exists within? Family, neighborhood, culture, ethnicity, class, gender, race, physical disability, age, religion, immigration status, etc. For example, an adult male survivor of sexual abuse would have the macro weaknesses of boys not being allowed to talk about sexual abuse. However, the recent disclosures about sexual abuse by various types of clergy changed that somewhat making the media coverage a macro strength. But then again, one could not get away from the media coverage which could contribute to a male survivor?s symptoms.

Intervention that went well: Intervention does not mean interpretation or insight that leads to an ?aha! moment.? An intervention could be showing up each week or the use of non-directive play therapy. Apply theory. Why do you think this worked out? If possible, use some of Herman?s ideas or her model. Because this is an important part of the paper, it could be two or three pages long.

Intervention that went less well: Again, this could be a referral to group, a suggestion of family therapy, a comment that the client had a strong reaction to. Using theory, look back and explain why it was less-than-successful. What would you do differently now?

Transference/Countertransference: Who did you represent to the client? Who did they represent (if anyone) to you? In what way was this client your teacher? What did you learn from the relationship? It is likely you will want to use Jim Chu?s article (on WebCT for the course on this section.

Treatment Plan: The two intervention sections and the transference/countertransference sections will be the bulk of the paper. BE BRIEF, perhaps one-half page. If you will be continuing with the client and don?t have to identify ?next steps? for the new therapist, write about where you think you are going with this client.


Students write highly effective papers about clients they have seen a handful of times. Again, you do not need to have gotten deeply in to the trauma history. As long as you make connections in your mind between the client?s past and the symptoms today, that is enough.


This is meant to be an integrative paper from the two years (or more) of social work education. It might seem like a lot for 10 pages, but oddly enough, many students end up enjoying it. Their experience is that it ?pulls together? much of what they?ve learned and gives them confidence in the skills that they have. I am around A LOT (except for Passover) so let?s talk if you have any worries.

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