Play in Child Development and Psychotherapy

Toward Empirically Supported Practice

Sandra Walker Russ

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2003
• ISBN:
  9781135675585
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psicologia
• Subtopic: Psicologia dello sviluppo

Child psychotherapy is in a state of transition. On the one hand, pretend play is a major tool of therapists who work with children. On the other, a mounting chorus of critics claims that play therapy lacks demonstrated treatment efficacy. These complaints are not invalid. Clinical research has only begun. Extensive studies by developmental researchers have, however, strongly supported the importance of play for children. Much knowledge is being accumulated about the ways in which play is involved in the development of cognitive, affective, and personality processes that are crucial for adaptive functioning. However, there has been a yawning gap between research findings and useful suggestions for practitioners. Play in Child Development and Psychotherapy represents the first effort to bridge the gap and place play therapy on a firmer empirical foundation. Sandra Russ applies sophisticated contemporary understanding of the role of play in child development to the work of mental health professionals who are trying to design intervention and prevention programs that can be empirically evaluated. Never losing sight of the complex problems that face child therapists, she integrates clinical and developmental research and theory into a comprehensive, up-to-date review of current approaches to conceptualizing play and to doing both therapeutic play work with children and the assessment that necessarily precedes and accompanies it.

1

Fundamental Play Processes

I was sitting in the cafeteria at the San Diego airport, amidst the usual chaotic airport scene, when I noticed a little boy, about 6 or 7 years old, sitting at the table next to mine. He was with an older brother or very young father, who was reading. The boy had laid out in front of him four figures: a cowboy, an Indian, a large monster, and a larger rubber dinosaur. He was totally engrossed in fantasy play with these creatures and was making up dialogue and action. I could not hear all of it, but I could hear, “Do this,” “No you won’t,” “Here’s this.” Some of the play was with an angry tone, some with a cooperative tone. There was a definite story line. His play went on for about 30 minutes. He was totally engaged and comfortable and was clearly having a good time. Finally, his older companion indicated it was time to leave. He helped the child carefully pack all of the creatures into his knapsack. The boy told one of them to “Have a good day.” He kept the dinosaur out and put it under his arm. The older companion was handling the situation very well: he was gentle, didn’t rush the boy, respected his little creatures, and did not intrude in the play. The boy was totally comfortable playing in front of him. I don’t know what kind of family situation this boy comes from or what kind of stress he’s going on to, but I do know that he has a terrific resource—he can use play and he likes to play. He is a good player, and that will help him in a variety of ways (Russ, 1995, p. 365).

While observing that child, 1 felt that he was fortunate because he could use play as a resource. He had the ability to use play as a vehicle for expressing emotion, channeling aggression, expressing and increasing positive affect, learning to modulate affect, playing with ideas and fantasy, practicing story-telling, and resolving problems and conflicts.

What are the processes expressed in play? By observing children at play, we can identify the cognitive and affective processes that are expressed in play behavior. Before reviewing processes in play, let us begin by defining pretend play.

PRETEND PLAY

Pretend play is important both in child development and in child psychotherapy. When the word play is used throughout this book, the specific type of play referred to is pretend play. Pretend play involves pretending, the use of fantasy and make-believe, and the use of symbolism. Fein (1987) stated that pretend play is a symbolic behavior in which “one thing is playfully treated as if it were something else” (p. 282). Fein also stated that pretense is charged with feelings and emotional intensity, so that affect is intertwined with pretend play. Fein viewed play as a natural form of creativity.

Fantasy is involved in pretend play. Klinger (1971) concluded that play and fantasy have a common origin. Piaget (1945/1967) conceptualized fantasy as “interiorized play.” J. Singer (1981) conceptualized play as the externalization of fantasy, so that play would be an expression of internal fantasy. Vygotsky (1930/1967) stated that creative imagination originated in children’s play (Smolucha, 1992). Sherrod and Singer (1979) identified processes involved in both fantasy and pretend play activities: the ability to form images; skill in storing and retrieving formed images; possessing a store of images; skill in recombining and integrating these images as a source of internal stimulation and divorcing them from reality; and reinforcement for skillful recombining of images. They believed that it is the last two processes that are unique to fantasy and play activities. Young children can differentiate between make-believe play and reality (Golomb & Galasso, 1995; Golomb & Kuersten, 1996).

Krasnor and Pepler (1980) developed a model of play that involves four components: nonliterality, positive affect, intrinsic motivation, and flexibility. They believed that “pure play” involves all four components, to varying degrees. They also presented three basic views of the relationship between play and developmental skills. First, play reflects the developmental level of the child and, therefore, can be used as a diagnostic tool. Second, play provides an opportunity to practice skills. Third, play is a causal agent in developmental change.

The study of children’s play can tell us about cognitive-affective interaction (Russ, 1987; J. Singer, 1973; D. Singer & J. Singer, 1990). Because play is an arena in which both cognitive and affective processes are reflected, we can learn about the development of these processes and how they interact. Slade and Wolf (1994) stressed the importance of studying the role of play in both the development of cognitive structure and in the mastering of emotions. Historically, these two domains have been studied separately, usually from different theoretical and research traditions (Feist, in press). As Morrison (1988) has noted, Piaget did not consider affect to be important in cognitive development, whereas Freud did. Measures of play processes have reflected this split in research traditions. Rubin, Fein, and Vandenberg (1983) pointed out that most of the measures of children’s play have measured cognitive processes, not affective processes. Thus, they referred to the “cognification” of play. Increasingly, there has been a focus on both cognition and affect in play. Investigating both types of processes is important, be-cause cognition and affect often occur simultaneously in play, and they interact. Slade and Wolf (1994) stated that the cognitive and affective functions of play are intertwined: “Just as the development of cognitive structures may play an important role in the resolution of emotional conflict, so emotional consolidation may provide an impetus to cognitive advances and integration” (p. xv). They implied that there is a working together of emotional functioning and cognitive structure.

PROCESSES EXPRESSED IN PLAY

What are the processes that are expressed in play? By observing the behavior of pretend play, we can see the expression of a number of cognitive processes, affective processes, and interpersonal processes. I thought it would be helpful to present a framework for categorizing these expressions early in this book. The following is a framework for thinking about the verba] and behavioral expressions that emerge in pretend play. It is based on theory and research in child development and child psychotherapy. I used this conceptual framework to guide the development of the Affect in Play Scale (Russ, 1987, 1993). The Affect in Play Scale (APS) measures some, but not all, of these processes. The APS is discussed in detail in chapter 4.

What follows is a very brief introduction to these play processes. They are discussed in more detail throughout this book. (See Table 1.1 for a summary.)

Cognitive Processes

• Organization. The ability to tell a story, with a logical time sequence and indications of cause and effect. Narratives can vary in elaboration of detail and complexity.

• Divergent thinking. The ability to generate a number of different ideas, story themes, and symbols.

• Symbolism. The ability to transform ordinary objects (blocks, Legos) into representations of other objects (e.g., a block becomes a telephone).

• Fantasy/Make-believe. The ability to engage in the “as if” play behavior—to pretend to be in a different time and space.

Affective Processes

• Expression of emotion. The ability to express affect states in a pretend play situation. Both positive and negative affect are expressed. For example, the child expresses happiness by having a doll clap her hands and jump up and down with joy.

• Expression of affect themes. The ability to express affect-laden images and content themes in play. The child builds a fortress with guns to prepare for a battle. This is aggressive ideation, even though no actual fight is occurring. Children differ in the range of emotion and affect content themes they express in play.

• Comfort and enjoyment in the play. The ability to enjoy and “get lost” in the play experience. The ability to experience pleasure and joy in the play situation.

• Emotion regulation and modulation of affect. The ability to contain and modulate both positive and negative emotion. Both cognitive and affective processes are involved.

• Cognitive integration of affect. The ability to integrate affect into a cognitive context. Affect is expressed within a narrative and cognitive context. For example, aggression is expressed within a story about a boxing match.

Interpersonal Processes

• Empathy. The expression of concern for and caring about others.

• Interpersonal schema/Self-other representation. The level of development of self-other differentiation and capacity for trusting others.

• Communication. The ability to communicate with others, to express ideas and emotions to others.

Problem Solving/Conflict Resolution Processes

• Approach to problems and conflicts. The tendency to try to find solutions to problems that arise.

• Problem solving/conflict resolution. The ability to work things out and resolve problems. The effectiveness of the problem-solving attempt

These are some of the major processes that can be observed and assessed in play...