A therapeutic play

A therapeutic play

  ​During his research, I was able to discover the role and effects of therapeutic play through the journal  "Children Without Play"(2005).

 This study summarizes the results of a small observational study of the effects of a therapeutic play project on a group of children in a pediatric hospital in Romania. Children were abandoned at birth and then spent most of their time tied to their cots with little positive impact on their lives.

 A playwright started working with the children, but nothing changed for them. They still spent the rest of the day bundled up in the same bed, barely interacting with anyone else. They didn't bathe, left diapers unchanged for long periods of time, and didn't eat properly.

  ​Dr. Fraser Brown is Britain's first theater professor. He is the leader of the BA (Hons) Playwork degree program at Leeds Beckett University and a Professional Links Tutor for the Graduate Play Therapy course run by the Academy of Play and Child Psychotherapy.

He is a scholar who practiced play therapy, which began with the concerns of people who found abandoned children in a pediatric hospital in Romania lying silently, staring at nothing. And through studies on the effect of play on this, many studies have been conducted on the effect of deprivation on children's play behavior, the evaluation of the value of play in children's play space, and the role of play in the Montessori education system.

​This amusement project started in the summer of 1999 and continues today. Initially, the intention of the project was to alleviate the suffering of children, but an amazing transformation has taken place. The project then conducts research to draw conclusions about the therapeutic effects of play. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the Developmental Differences Project. The children were observed daily while observing their social interactions. It was a way to watch the children play and leave notes. The nurse had little involvement in the children's lives at this time, and the director gave permission to conduct the study.
The study covered the full range of 150 children's play behaviors and/or characters derived from play and play theory.
These factors include freedom, flexibility, socialization, physical activity, intellectual stimulation, creativity, problem solving, emotional balance, self-discovery, ethical stance, adult-child relationships, and general appeal.

 The precedent for this project is similar to ethology research conducted in the 1950s and 1960s. Harlow's experiments were done with monkeys. He raised baby monkeys in a laboratory in a variety of ways. I was exposed to various situations, such as letting my mother and colleagues play or being alone. However, the singularity was that even though they were raised by their mothers, the monkeys exhibited disturbing behavioral patterns. Rather, groups of monkeys that were allowed to play with their peers, that is, monkeys that experienced some form of 'contact comfort', developed normally. This is when something as simple as a piece of soft cloth is given an hour a day. Through this study, he and one of his collaborators, Leonard Rosenblum, found three variables that meet the needs of primates: touch, movement, and play. (2004) Similarly, abandoned children in Romanian hospitals were chained up and not allowed to play with their peers. Isolated from each other for long periods of time, the children remained silent without making a sound.

For these children, the purpose of play was to provide an environment in which they could ultimately grow toward self-realization. Rich play environments have greater potential for child development. 

​Among other things, Else (2001) suggested that 'therapeutic play with knowledge based on child development needs to have cultural competence'. We are talking about culture, race, religion, etc. Therefore, in the example of Romania, it is important not only to develop an understanding of national characteristics, but also the culture of local villages and pediatric hospitals.

Chronically abused and neglected children in less than a year solved a problem many experts thought was impossible. It was play that contributed to this change.