Il gioco infantile nella diagnostica e nella psicopedagogia

Abstract

It has been widely demonstrated that play represents a fundamental mean for the child, who from an early age is preparing to know the reality that surrounds him. In fact, research conducted by developmental scholars reveals that play is the main tool for a child's cognitive and socio-affective development. The child is dependent on play to the point of being totally absorbed in it and becoming his most important activity in life. The peculiar aspect lies in considering play as the key to reading that allows the child not only to explore the outside world but also, above all, to know himself better and learn to relate to others. Through direct observation of the child playing, authors such as Klein argue that play represents a way to learn about the child's internal world, which can be the seat of anguish, conflicts and fantasies. The reference to Klein was indispensable as the author entrusted the game with a founding value that symbolized the place or rather the space to stage the child's thoughts. From the analysis of the methodologies presented, it can be deduced how play represents a diagnostic tool because it allows to detect various factors determining the child's development. In particular, it emerged that play therapy, making use of techniques and tools suitable for children such as the use of storytelling, newspapers, photo collections, board games, physical-interactive play, artistic techniques such as dance, theater of the puppets, the masks and the tray of sand, can symbolically represent that window capable of bringing out the internal world of children. In deepening the aspect relating to the child's internal world, it was necessary to refer to the Sandplay Therapy technique, as it aims to build a therapeutic space that is free and protected. A relational and physical space, in which the child has the opportunity to explore himself and to bring out those parts still unknown to him, through the symbolic play with sand and miniatures. The study and observation of childhood games have favored the understanding of the subject in its total dimension that encompasses the family, relational and cultural context within which the child acts and relates.