Abstract
Background:Childhood is important and critical period in human life. The foundation of ego is shaped in childhood. Play therapy is one of the successful strategies to help children with inner conflicts problems. This method of psychotherapy is base on the normal learning processes of children, provides solutions to relieve feelings of stress, and expands self-expression. Group play therapy can enhance the self-awareness, self- regulation, social communication, empathy and adoptability in children.Methods:Present study investigated the effects of play therapy on relational and emotional skills of pre-school children. For this purpose, the total numbers of 372 pre-school children were randomly selected, and divided into two equal groups (case and control). In next step, the BUSSE-SR methodology was used for evaluation and comparison of self-awareness, self-regulation, social interaction, empathy, adoptability, and control groups. Pre-test were performed for both groups and case group was involved in-group play therapy. According to the results of post-test, correlation of variables between case-control groups was examined by multivariate analysis of covariance.Results:Frequency of boys and girls in our sample were 51.3 and 48.7 percent, respectively. The mean age of children was 5.1±0.6 year. According to the results of present study, play therapy significantly enhanced the social-emotional skills (P< 0.001). Our findings are consistent with the results of previous studies in other nations with different environmental and cultural properties. In conclusion, it seems that play therapy can be used in pre-school centers to help children learn problem-solving skills and communicate with others.
Highlights
Childhood is the important and critical period of life with critical effects on personality of individuals
The results showed significant difference in mean score of post-tests of case and control groups, and deficit of attention in hyperactive children was reduced after play therapy
We examined the impact of group play therapy on self-awareness, self-regulation, social interaction, empathy, and adoptability of pre-school children in Tehran, Iran
Summary
Childhood is the important and critical period of life with critical effects on personality of individuals. It is best period to help children learn adaptive behaviors and effective communicational skills (Kollbrunner & Seifert, 2013). In periods of life, especially in of adolescence, these skills can provide corrective emotional strategies and healing in conflicts (Jager, 2013). Through play and play therapy, children can learn many basic social-emotional skills to communicate and express their www.ccsenet.org/gjhs. Play therapy is one of the successful strategies to help children with inner conflicts problems. This method of psychotherapy is base on the normal learning processes of children, provides solutions to relieve feelings of stress, and expands self-expression. Group play therapy can enhance the self-awareness, selfregulation, social communication, empathy and adoptability in children
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