High school students as therapeutic agents with young children experiencing school adjustment difficulties: The effectiveness of a filial therapy training model.

Filial therapy has been used since the early 1960s to train parents as therapeutic agents for children experiencing a broad range of social, emotional and behavioral difficulties. Using a pretest-posttest control group design, this study examined the efficacy of a filial therapy model in training high school students to be effective helpers with young children experiencing school adjustment difficulties. 32 high school students enrolled in a Peer Assistance and Leadership course titled PALs were trained to become therapeutic change agents for identified prekindergarten and kindergarten students. The PALs students received training and supervision in child-centered play therapy skills that they practiced in weekly play sessions with their assigned child. Results from the statistical analyses reveal that the experimental group of high school students receiving filial therapy training demonstrated a significant increase in their empathic interactions with children and that the experimental group of children receiving the play therapy intervention experienced a significant reduction in problem behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Child-Centered Group Play Therapy with Children with Speech Difficulties.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of child-centered group play therapy as an intervention for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten children with speech difficulties. A pre-test, post-test comparison group design was utilized. Child-centered group play therapy was shown to have a large practical significance in helping children improve both their expressive and receptive language skills. Child-centered group play therapy was shown to have a mixed effect upon children's anxiety. Qualitative data was examined to determine clinical significance of the intervention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Filial therapy: Description and rationale.

Filial therapy involves training parents, in groups of 6 to 8, to conduct play sessions with their emotionally disturbed young children, using an orientation and methodology modeled after client-centered play therapy. After training, the parents conduct their play sessions at home while continuing their weekly group meetings. Parents' sessions with their therapist begin with discussion of the play sessions, but may extend to any other areas that are emotionally relevant. Preliminary experience with 2 groups suggests that this type of method is deserving of further exploration as a method of increasing leverage of professional resources, and as a tool for gaining further insight into children's fantasy and parent-child relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Child-Centered Kinder Training for Teachers of Pre-School Children Deemed At-Risk.

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of child-centered kinder training on both at-risk children and their teachers using Landreth's 10-week filial training model. In this project, the teachers received 30 minutes of immediate feedback following their play sessions with individual children. Following the 10-week training, teachers participated in 13 group sessions to help them generalize the use of the skills into their classrooms. The findings indicate that changes occurred in both the children and the teachers. The children who participated in play sessions with their teachers improved in three of the four composite scales of the Behavior Assessment Scale for Children (Internalizing Problems, Behavioral Symptoms Index, and Adaptive Skills), when compared to a control group of children who did not have the play sessions. The teachers demonstrated better play therapy skills and higher levels of empathic responding with children in the playroom. In addition, teachers were able to generalize the skills into their classrooms when compared to teachers who had not received kinder training. The findings of this study indicate that child-centered kinder training is an effective strategy for both at-risk pre-school children and their teachers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The efficacy of intensive individual play therapy for chronically ill children.

Examined the effectiveness of play therapy for children (aged 7-11 yrs) diagnosed with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). Specifically, the intent of the study was to determine the effectiveness of an intensive play therapy intervention in (a) reducing symptoms of anxiety in children with IDDM, (b) reducing the overall behavior difficulties in children with IDDM, (c) increasing healthy adjustment in children with IDDM, (d) increasing diabetic's children's adherence to their diabetic regime, and (e) having an impact on these emotional and behavioral symptoms over time. The experimental group comprised 9 boys and 6 girls. Analysis of covariance revealed that the children in the experimental group significantly improved their adaptation to their diabetes following intensive play therapy. Results indicate that intensive play therapy may be an effective intervention for children diagnosed with IDDM. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The power of Filial Relationship Enhancement therapy as an intervention in child abuse and neglect.

Identified variables that influence intervention in child abuse and neglect and proposes a constructive approach that can help these children and their families change. This is a difficult and complex societal problem, and it is difficult to tease out the specific elements that are responsible for the frequency of its occurrence. The family context is often recognized as having a significant influence. Filial Relationship Enhancement, using an improved family context to support gains, has a long history of research and practice to support its efficacy to intervene in difficulties that impede optimum functioning in children. Filial Relationship Enhancement helps parents learn to conduct weekly child-centered play therapy sessions with their own children at home. This article presents the basic assumptions and the rationale for considering the potential power of this approach. It also describes a program of intervention incorporated by a child protective unit of a county agency. Using informal measures, outcomes are described as well. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Kinder training: Play-based consultation to improve the school adjustment of discouraged kindergarten and first grade students.

Examined the effects of Kinder Training on selected kindergarten and first grade students' behavior, social skills, and early literacy skills, as well as its effects on teacher behavior in the classroom. Kinder Training involves the teacher in play sessions with a child who is exhibiting discouragement in the classroom. The participants in this study included 7 kindergarten teachers, 4 kindergarten paraprofessionals, 3 first grade teachers, and their 14 selected students (median age 5 yrs, 9 mo). The teacher conducts play sessions while receiving supervision from a counselor, learning skills that are both appropriate for the playroom and valuable for the classroom. As a result of the play sessions, the teacher–student relationship is enhanced, the student feels more encouraged in the classroom, and the teacher transfers the newly obtained skills to his or her work with other students. This transfer included an increase in facilitative statements, encouragement, and limit-setting. Additionally, the teachers decreased the number of praise statements and ineffective limit-setting. The results suggest that Kinder Training is an effective intervention for struggling students and a successful proactive approach for teacher skill development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Child-centered play therapy with a seven-year-old boy diagnosed with intermittent explosive disorder.

Child-centered play therapy (CCPT) has been supported as an effective method for working with children. A case study is presented that describes treatment using CCPT with a 7-year-old boy diagnosed with intermittent explosive disorder (IED). This case study delineates 16 sessions of play therapy with a registered play therapist. The behavioral problems the child exhibited at the onset of therapy were greatly improved at the conclusion of the sessions. The outcome of this case study supported the use of play therapy for children with IED. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Filial therapy with nonoffending parents of children who have been sexually abused.

Examined the effectiveness of a 10 wk filial therapy training model as a method of intervention for nonoffending parents (24–56 yrs old) and their children (4–10 yrs old) who have experienced sexual abuse. Ss were assigned to either an experimental or control group and were given pretraining sessions and assessments. The parents in the experimental group then conducted weekly 30 min special play sessions with their children, as recommended by Landreth (1991). One session was videotaped. The parents received constructive feedback and support from the facilitator and group members during meetings. A posttest battery of instruments was administered to parents and children following the training sessions. Analyses of covariance revealed that the nonoffending parents in the experimental group significantly increased their level of empathy in their interactions with their children, significantly increased their attitude of acceptance toward their children, and significantly reduced their level of stress. Measures of the children's behavior, anxiety, emotional adjustment, and self-concept indicated positive trends. The authors maintain that this study supports filial therapy as an effective intervention for nonoffending parents and their children who have experienced sexual abuse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Quantitative analysis of long-term child-centered play therapy.

This exploratory study measured the impact of long-term Child- Centered Play Therapy (CCPT) with 23 children identified by teachers as exhibiting behavioral and emotional difficulties. Through the use of a repeated measures design, researchers examined the use of CCPT from pre-intervention to mid-intervention (16 sessions) to post intervention (32 sessions). Results indicated that children who participated in 32 sessions of CCPT demonstrated statistically significant improvement on the Total Problems Scale as measured on the Teacher Report Form, Total Stress Scale of the Index of Teaching Stress (ITS), ADHD Domain of the ITS, and Student Characteristics of the ITS. Researchers reported improvement to be statistically steady over the full duration of therapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Is handwriting causally related to learning to write? Treatment of handwriting problems in beginning writers.

The contribution of handwriting to learning to write was examined in an experimental training study involving beginning writers with and without an identified disability. First-grade children experiencing handwriting and writing difficulties participated in 27 fifteen-min sessions designed to improve the accuracy and fluency of their handwriting. In comparison to their peers in a contact control condition receiving instruction in phonological awareness, students in the handwriting condition made greater gains in handwriting as well as compositional fluency immediately following instruction and 6 months later. The effects of instruction were similar for students with and without an identified disability. These findings indicate that handwriting is causally related to writing and that explicit and supplemental handwriting instruction is an important element in preventing writing difficulties in the primary grades. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of the Trauma Play Scale: Comparison of children manifesting a history of interpersonal trauma with a normative sample.

The purpose of this study was the continuation in the development of the Trauma Play Scale through the addition of a normative sample. The scale is an observation-based assessment designed to be used by raters to detect differences in play therapy behaviors of children who have a history of trauma versus children with no known history of trauma. The scale is used to measure posttraumatic play behaviors (intense play, repetitive play, play disruptions, avoidant play, and negative affect) of children, via video-recorded play therapy sessions, at 5-min intervals. Percentage agreement and correlation estimates of interrater reliability suggested that raters were able to achieve consensus and consistency in their ratings. Statistical analyses indicated the Trauma Play Scale has a high degree of discriminant validity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early identification of reading difficulties using heterogeneous developmental trajectories.

Serious conceptual and procedural problems associated with current diagnostic methods call for alternative approaches to assessing and diagnosing students with reading problems. This study presents a new analytic model to improve the classification and prediction of children's reading development. Growth mixture modeling was used to identify the presence of 10 different heterogeneous developmental patterns. In all, 411 children in kindergarten through Grade 2 from 3 elementary schools in Texas were administered measures of phonological awareness, word recognition, and rapid naming skills 4 times a year. The mean ages were 5.8 years (SD = 0.35) for the kindergartners, 6.9 years (SD = 0.39) for Grade 1, and 8.0 years (SD = 0.43) for Grade 2; the percentage of boys was 50%. The results indicate that precursor reading skills such as phonological awareness and rapid naming are highly predictive of word reading (word recognition) and that developmental profiles formed in kindergarten are directly associated with development in Grades 1 and 2. Students identified as having reading-related difficulties in kindergarten exhibited slower development of word recognition skills in subsequent years of the study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Category typicality, cultural familiarity, and the development of category knowledge.

This study examined the role that cultural familiarity with instances might play in the development of category knowledge cross-culturally. Thirty kindergarten, 2nd-, 4th-, and 6th-grade children from Taiwan and the United States were asked to make category inclusion and typicality judgments for 6 categories. Cultural familiarity with instances was more highly correlated with the typicality ratings of younger than older children but was less strongly correlated for Chinese than American children. Cultural familiarity also partially accounted for cultural variations in category knowledge. Therefore, cultural familiarity with instances seems to play an important role in the development of category knowledge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Follow-Up Study of Kinder Training for Preschool Teachers of Children Deemed At-Risk.

Authors conducted a follow-up study to Post, McAllister, Sheely, Hess, & Flowers (2004) to determine whether a group of teachers who previously had been taught play therapy training skills maintained the skills and empathic responding in individual play sessions and in the classroom one academic year after the original training. The participating teachers were matched with a control group of untrained teachers. Results showed differences between the trained and untrained teachers on the use of play therapy skills and empathetic responses in individual play sessions. There were no differences found between the trained and untrained teachers on the use of play therapy skills and empathic responses in the classroom setting. In addition, the participating teachers reported the usefulness of the training in focus group dialogues, citing that the new skills improved their classroom behaviors, changed their perspective on the value of including children's opinions, and increased their confidence as teachers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Integrating play and family therapy methods: A survey of play therapists' attitudes in the field.

The researchers surveyed 295 members of the Association for Play Therapy on their attitudes related to working with families when treating children. The results indicated the majority of play therapists held attitudes conducive to involving families in their approaches with children. However, mixed findings were found in specific areas related to the implementation of play therapy with families, suggesting barriers may exist. These mixed findings included a decreased percentage of play therapists that felt like play therapy was effective in family therapy when compared with the high level who felt that play and family therapy approaches could be integrated. Moreover, the respondents were divided on issues such as parents' willingness to be involved in therapy with their children and if parents were actually resistant to being included in sessions with their children. These mixed findings suggest that a wide range of attitudes and experiences about parental involvement exist among play therapists in the field. The authors raise key questions for the play therapy field to consider in more depth and suggest improvements that may be needed in play therapy education to increase the efficacy of play therapists' skills in working with families. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preliminary development of an interaction matrix for observation of client–therapist relationships in play therapy.

Describes the development of the Carmichael Therapist/Client Interaction Matrix (CTCIM) and presents preliminary findings on its use in supervision of therapists and for empirical study of therapist/client interactions. The purpose of the CTCIM is to graphically depict the relationship between the level of therapist's responses and the client's behaviors in therapy. The CTCIM was used to evaluate 32 sessions in a university play therapy laboratory. Five children (aged 6–10 yrs) were paired with 5 therapists. The 5 children represented a wide range of problems from physical abuse survivors to school adjustment difficulties. The 5 graduate student therapists varied from beginning to moderate counseling experience. A positive correlation was found between therapist's responses and client behavioral outcomes in the preliminary study. Based on the finding that the CTCIM met 4 of the 6 dimensions recommended by P. Howe and L. Silvern (1981) in investigating issues important to therapists and clients, it is concluded that the CTCIM demonstrates potential for empirical studies and for supervision of therapists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Short-term filial therapy with German mothers: Findings from a controlled study.

Filial therapy has been shown to be an effective tool in improving parent-child relationships. This study represents a starting point for investigating the effectiveness of filial therapy with German mothers and their children. A brief form of the VanFleet filial training approach was used with a group of 15 mothers attending a health retreat for 2 weeks. Dependent variables included a measure of parenting styles, behavior ratings of children, and child-mother play interaction measures. Results showed an increase in acceptance, empathy, positive attention, and educational competence for mothers who received filial therapy and a decrease in ratings of their children's behavior difficulties. Control group members did not show similar gains. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What about the kids? Parenting and child adjustment in the context of couple therapy.

Little research examines parenting and children's adjustment when couples engage in therapy. We examined how couples with and without children improve with couple therapy and whether they also report improvements in parenting and child adjustment. With up to twenty six sessions of couple therapy, 134 couples, 68 of whom had children, showed improved marital satisfaction during treatment, which was ultimately maintained over the 2-year follow-up, regardless of whether they had children. Couples married relatively longer, both with and without children, evidenced greater improvement. Couples with children reported less conflict over child rearing and better child adjustment during treatment, but only improvements in the former were maintained. Conflict over child rearing mediated the relationship between marital distress and child adjustment over therapy and the 2-year follow-up. These preliminary results suggest that couples in therapy may decrease their conflict over child rearing during treatment and they may be able to maintain these gains for at least two years following treatment; moreover, over the course of treatment, this decreased conflict is tied to improved child adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Filial therapy: An intervention for parents of children with chronic illness.

Describes the use of filial therapy as an intervention with families of chronically ill children. Filial therapy is an extension of play therapy which uses the behaviors of the client-centered play therapist in a family skills training program. Ss were 5 29–36 yr old mothers of 4.5–8.0 yr old children with chronic illnesses. Parents completed the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory and Parental Acceptance Scale (B. R. Porter, 1952) before and after participating in filial therapy sessions. Children completed the Child Anxiety Scale. Results show that filial therapy can have a positive impact on parents of children with chronic illness. Parents were better able to accurately judge their child's level of anxiety and reported differentiation between themselves and their children. Qualitative reports of outcomes indicate that the parents believed that the course had a positive impact on their relationships with their children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)