Créativité numérique et innovation thérapeutique : recréer un lieu de soin sur Minecraft

Abstract

ObjectivesToday, video games are recognized as an excellent tool for therapeutic mediation with young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), playing the role of a malleable medium facilitating the evolution of group dynamics and creating a play area between the child and the adult, a space of creativity and shared pleasure allowing them to “be together,” to communicate, and to enter into a secure and holding-type intersubjective relationship. This is why we wanted to maintain this type of treatment during the general lockdown imposed in France in March 2020. MethodWe set up a virtual activity based on the use of the video game Minecraft, after having reconstituted our outpatient clinic for children and adolescents on a private server. Following the end of the lockdown, we were able to experiment with two workshops: one face-to-face; and the other in video therapy. ResultsWe were able to observe similarities and differences in the use of this medium by our young ASD patients, but also in the way in which this treatment allowed us to “put a little institution” back into the daily lives of youth during lockdown. Thus, we were able to see that the content of the Minecraft game, and more specifically the reconstructed clinic, functioned as a space of holding for the adolescents. The comparison between the digital institution and the real institution was present throughout the session in the adolescents’ exploratory actions. However, they were never “tricked” by this virtual reality, each one considering this digital clinic as a simple simulation of the institution where they go for treatment. DiscussionIt should be noted, however, that this type of mediation is not the easiest to set up for a team of professionals. Indeed, we were confronted with certain difficulties, notably the amount of time required to recreate the clinic in the game, problems with the private servers, the quality of the hardware, and the extraordinary public health situation. ConclusionThis therapeutic workshop with digital mediation allowed the very early establishment of a group dynamic and of a group psychic envelope. Therapy sessions conducted in Minecraft allowed us to work on group dynamics, on the real and digital representations of a place of care, on the children's identity references (therapeutic groups, home, etc.), and on their capacity to play in a group. The adolescents enrolled were able to individually search for their own identity markers, according to their place in the institution. Finally, the Minecraft project allowed for the emergence of many interactions and shared emotions between the members of the therapeutic group (children and adults).