Game therapy for preschoolers: goals, methods and means

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Playing in children is always associated with vivid emotions. The child, feeling free, reveals his ideas about reality. But often it contains fears, experiences and complexes that are difficult for a small person to cope with. Play therapy will help identify the problem, find the causes and gently eliminate.

The role of play in a child's life

To understand children and find the right approach, you need to see the world through their eyes, because so often adults perceive babies as their smaller copy! But older people are able to express their thoughts in words, and for preschoolers, especially the smallest, this skill is not available. As long as their language is a game. And it is on it that they talk about worries, joys and thoughts.

There is no need to force or teach children to play. Everything happens spontaneously, with pleasure, without any purpose - this is an absolutely natural process. But this is not only entertainment, but also a way in which babies begin to get acquainted with the world around them and learn to live in it.

What isplay therapy

For preschoolers, this is one of the effective methods of work. It is games and toys that turn out to be tools for resolving conflicts and expressing feelings. Moments of life are associated with them, when the baby feels safe and can control his own life. By manipulating them, children more accurately express their attitudes towards peers, adults, or events.

Baby begins to better understand his feelings, learns to make decisions, increases self-esteem and practices communication skills. Play therapy for preschoolers is also physical activity. Through the game they expend energy, learn to interact with others.

Results and Opportunities

Game therapy is successfully corrected:

• aggressiveness and anxiety;
• fears and low self-esteem;
• problems with learning and communication;
• Super-emotional stress and personal experiences (accidents, divorce of parents and others).

Through play therapy, the child can:

• learn to cope with psychological trauma and current problems;
• will get the opportunity to express and overcome the accumulated emotional experiences and difficulties;
• will become more confident, calm and friendly;
• be able to express emotions in the right way.

How consultations work

Game therapy for preschoolers is carried out in the presence of a psychologist or teacher. He guides the child, emphasizing the problem, or helps to solve it.on one's own. Sometimes during the session, problems are revealed that adults have not noticed until now.

Parents are often present at consultations - this point is especially important for anxious or shy children.

Where to start the game

There are a few special points and to get the most benefit, they must be observed.

The most important thing is to respect the baby's personality. Take into account his desires, do not force him to play what he does not want. Therefore, the game should be natural and take place in a pleasant atmosphere of respect and trust to each other. In the process, be sure to observe the child and his emotional load. Overwork must not be allowed!

Adult participation in play therapy

1. Active. The organizer is a game therapist. For example, he suggests choosing toys that are associated with anxiety or fear. After that, a problematic situation is played out in which the preschooler manifests himself. The game goes according to a predetermined plan with a clear distribution of roles. As a result, conflict moments are created, and the child successfully resolves them.
2. Passive. The therapist does not direct the game and does not participate in it. The leading role is given to the child who plays the situation. Of course, as a result, he independently comes to a solution to the problem, because when the problem can be seen from the side, then the solution is easier. The purpose of adult participation in play therapy exercises for preschoolers is to allow children to be themselves, which makes it possible for them to express themselves, free themselves from fears and emotional stress.

Group and individual play therapy

Each of the options is designed to solve its own problems.

Group form helps each child to be themselves while building relationships with adults and other participants. Working in a group of 5-8 people of approximately the same age is most effective.

The peculiarity of the approach is that it is not the group as a whole that is evaluated, but each individual separately. Children watch each other, strive to participate in the game, trying on various roles. They get freedom and self-assess their behavior and opportunities.

This version of play therapy for preschoolers is the most preferable, since it lacks common tasks, but the relationship of participants with each other is important.

An individual form is used if the baby does not need to communicate with peers or he is in a stressful state. Conduct it effectively in the presence of parents to help them build relationships with the child, improve them, and understand and accept him.

In individual work, the game therapist interacts with a preschooler. Letting go of dominance, restraint, judgment, any form of aggression or interference will help build friendships with your child, and they will be able to express their feelings and emotions more clearly when they feel freer.

Parents, having understood the principle, will be able to connect later or at home.

Examples of group and individual lessons

Exercises and games for play therapy for preschoolers can be aimed at correcting various problems.

For example, the task “Let's build a house” is perfect for gaining cooperation experience. Use cardboard boxes, paints, scissors, glue. A joint lesson in a group involves distributing roles, and there is something for everyone.

To build friendly relationships, you can play "Compliment". Children walk around the hall, and when they collide, they say pleasant words to each other, looking into their eyes. Handshakes or hugs are added later.

To create group cohesion, the task "Web" is suitable. Participants sit in a circle. An adult, having reported some interesting detail about himself, clamps the edge of the thread in his hands and passes the ball to the child opposite. He must name and / or tell about himself.

Thus, as a result of throwing a thread from hand to hand, a tangled web is obtained. Unraveling, everyone passes the ball in reverse order, calling the next participant. Concluding, you can discuss whose story you liked more or made an impression.

Individual games for play therapy for preschoolers are no less effective. For example, the child is invited to circle his hand and write on each finger a quality that he likes in himself. In place of the palm, add what you don’t like. The exercise provides an opportunity to better understand yourself, and the therapist - a problem with which to continue to work.

Home play therapy

Parents often wonder if it is possibleuse of home play therapy for preschoolers. Exercises and games are absolutely realistic to pick up in this case. In a familiar environment, the child feels as relaxed as possible, and the session will be more effective.

You can ask the child to portray family members. At the same time, the colors used, the location of people, the appearance of strangers or absent relatives are important. Discussing the drawing will help to understand the experience.

Psychologists give many examples when, thanks to this method, it was possible to prevent many problems and smooth out conflicts in the family. For example, a girl drew one of her parents small and aloof from the others. It turned out that she did not feel the love and support of this loved one.

Or the boy portrayed a girl without arms. When it turned out that he was constantly offended by his older sister, his parents were able to immediately respond. Many problems "grow" in the family, and it's never too late to address them.

Available at home and role play. It is easy to determine what the child likes and what scares or worries. For example, if the dolls or other characters are friends, are in a great mood, as a rule, nothing bothers him. If during the game the toys often have conflicts with each other, most likely you will have to look for a problem in real life. You can ask your child probing questions to learn more about him. For example - what does this doll like to do? What is the most delicious thing for her? What is she afraid of?

Accessible shared activities help create emotionalintimacy, calm the baby and dispel his worries.

Can a game teach to communicate?

Many parents and educators note that it is becoming more and more difficult for modern children to find a common language with each other. As a result, they cannot build relationships, quarrel more often and withdraw into themselves.

Common interests, tasks, joint actions contribute to the emergence of harmonious relationships between peers. To do this, it is important to be able to express one's own state with words, facial expressions, gestures, as well as recognize the emotions of others.

Unfortunately, it is not always easy for a child to master the skills of communicative competence. Insufficient development of such skills can become a barrier to free communication and cognitive activity, which will slow down the development of the child as a person.

It is possible to correct the problem by means of game therapy. The development of communicative competence in preschoolers occurs through joint activities. Children easily begin to communicate, developing speech and gaining new skills.

Basic techniques include bringing children together and creating a welcoming environment around them. All proposed games are built not on rivalry, but on partnership relations: round dances, fun games. For example, the game “Secret” is interesting, when the host gives each of the magic chest a small secret (a small toy, a bead, a beautiful pebble), which cannot be shown to others. Children go and persuade each other to show their “jewel”. An adult helps, but in the gameparticipants wake up fantasy and they are trying to find a common language and suitable words and arguments.

In the game "Mittens" the host lays out several pairs of black and white paper mittens, and the children must find "their pair", and then paint the same together. The players who do it first win. Participants will have to find a similar part and agree on which colors to choose.

In play therapy for preschoolers, activities like this help find new ways to make connections and partnerships, as well as enjoy communication. In the future, such skills will come in handy in order to live comfortably in a society of people, to easily understand others and to be understood yourself.

For children of any age and with any problem, including children with disabilities who need special conditions for education and upbringing, you can find suitable activities.

Methods of game therapy

Puppet theaters, outdoor games, sand tables are used to successfully achieve goals. One of the newest is such a method of game therapy for preschoolers as a board game. All stages are important, from preparation. For example, it will be useful for aggressive children to participate in its creation - they come up with rules, draw individual elements, and closed preschoolers are included in the game already at the preparation stage.

For the development of communication of preschoolers with disabilities, game therapy is also supposed to use board games. They attract children with colorfulness, contribute to the formation of an arbitraryattention, learn to follow the rules. You can make the game a little more difficult to practice counting, reading, pattern recognition or color recognition.

The field is a walking game with multi-colored circles, each of which involves a task of a certain type (compliments to the participants, continue a phrase or finish a short story, make up and depict an action with the help of facial expressions).

Sand play therapy

A simple, at first glance, entertainment has turned into an effective therapeutic method. Children's sand creations are connected with their inner world and experiences.

Sand play therapy, as a form of he alth saving for preschoolers, is useful for relieving muscle and emotional stress, developing tactile sensitivity and hand-eye coordination. Playing with sand is an exciting process that awakens creativity, relaxing and inspiring.

With the help of various small figurines, the child dramatizes situations that excite him, frees himself from internal tension or irritation. The main task of a psychologist is to build a trusting contact in order to become part of the game and create a dialogue. In the next step, together, try to help deal with the problem.

Figures, natural materials, favorite toys are not only a reflection of the child's world, but also a bridge that will help to penetrate into his inner "I".

For sand activities, a wide selection of figures is offered - heroes of fairy tales, people of various professions, animals and birds, vehicles, furniture and much more. In other words, this is the world of a baby in miniature, which lives according to its laws.

The possibilities of sand play therapy with preschoolers allow you to create endless plots, since sand is a wonderful material through which psychological help has a noticeable effect. Such activities are liked by children, having a healing effect on their body.