Play is the fundamental tools to promote children’s emotional, social and cognitive growth because children can fully express concrete and symbolic experience through play (Piaget, 1962). Due to the limitation of language ability, children cannot have fully express the complex though and their inner feeling by using world only (Piaget, 1951). Thus, similar to adult that talking is the common strategy for expression or exploration, play is the child’s natural mean to help them to express complicated thought, feeling and exploration (Landreth, 2002). In the primary school setting which the majority target for counselor is children, play therapy is the effective way for counselor to communicate with students which benefit therapeutic process. Therefore, this paper aims on exploring the needs of the play therapy in school counselling, how child-centered play therapy which is one of the play therapy apply to school counselling and case application in school counselling.
Play therapy Play therapy is originally developed by Anna Freud and Melanie Klein. According to Landreth, ‘play therapy is developed from the effort to apply psychoanalytic therapy children’ (1991). It is because Freud, and …show more content…
In play therapy, each student is equally received freedom, empathy, unconditional positive regard, acceptance, understanding and genuineness from counselor in the session (Landreth & Sweeney, 1997). Therefore, each student regardless of diverse culture, socio-economic status, academic performance and language ability can freely express life experience, explore self-culture and communicate with counselor though play (Landreth & Sweeney, 1997). With reference to Bratton, Ray, Rhine, and Jones, play therapy is the effective intervention for children in the area of behavior, social, personality issue across gender and age