The use of board games in child psychotherapy

As likely as not, psychotherapists have been trained not to teach—that is, to avoid giving directions and suggestions in order to confine the psychotherapy to working within the therapeutic relationship, helping with resistances, and rendering less than conscious content more accessible Anthony, Therapeutic work with children centered on their growing up includes encouraging and expanding their ego strengths and skills.

To the school child, the act of learning is part of growing up and is thus likely to surface frequently in the therapeutic hour. It is as if children have read R. Teaching a child a new game, when she specifically requests to learn it, promises to create new venues for revealing psychological conflicts, and affords the therapist an enlarged landscape in which to interact with a now more active, communicative child.

We must learn to work with what latency-age children tell us, especially when it is articulated ever more clearly as they refine their game-playing expertise. Anthony, E. The comparable experience of a child and adult analyst. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 37 : Bruner, J. Toward a theory of instruction. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Elkind, D. Child development and education.

New York: Oxford University Press. Freud, A. The writings of Anna Freud: Problems of psychoanalytic training, and the technique of therapy. New York: International Universities Press. Newman, C. Piaget, J. The moral development of the child. New York: Free Press. White, R. Include Synonyms Include Dead terms. Peer reviewed Direct link. Journal of Child Psychotherapy , v34 n3 p Dec Playing checkers, football or more recently, computer games, is an important part of the latency child's culture.

Play Therapy Toys Shop All. Books Shop All. Art Shop All. Sensory Shop All. School Counseling Shop All. Need it by January 17th?