Therapeutic Play:
Not Only Fun, but Essential
Lauren Bluford
IST 479 Capstone - Integrative Studies
Dr. Rhonda Davis
04/09/2020
Abstract
Therapeutic play is designed to meet the emotional needs of children hospitalized for an illness, routine procedure, or surgery. This method of therapy responds to the social- emotional needs of children, especially those which have experienced trauma, by providing an intervention of normalcy into the chaos of hospitalization. Many adults cannot handle the stress of being in a hospital, but when you are a child and your only jobs are school and play, your entire routine is stripped from underneath you. An extended hospital stay brings great fear and depression for children. They can no longer play with their friends and siblings, go to school, play sports, etc. This paper is intended to give readers the understanding of what therapeutic play is, why it is needed in all hospitals world-wide, and most importantly, to identify the social-emotional benefits of young, hospitalized kiddos. An Interdisciplinary approach is needed to discuss the topic of play therapy because with the insights of psychology, education, and human services, it can be proven how beneficial this form of therapy can be in young minds. Each discipline intertwines with one another to ultimately analyze therapeutic play’s value in the hospitals. All my disciplines include professionals who understand study and child development; All of which can attest to the importance in play therapy. This paper will give all readers a call to action: If this hospitalized child was an important child in your life, would you want them to have the normalcy of play? What if I told you this play was not only fun, but that it can be a natural healer away from the needles and medicines? With this integrative approach, one can further understand this topic and the need behind therapeutic play in hospitals around us.
Introduction
When you hear the word therapeutic, many would not assume the word to follow is ‘play’. However, play is therapeutic and beneficial for everyone, especially for hospitalized children. A hospital stay can be a desolate time for anyone, but if you are a child it may be unbearable. You do not have any peers to turn to in your time of need and the only people around are your parents. You can no longer even play or act like the child you are. Defined as, “Therapy used to help meet the emotional needs of children who have an illness or surgery that requires hospitalization,” therapeutic play’s definition directly states the service’s importance (Pediatric Surgery). Therapeutic Play, also referred to as play therapy, is an essential part in the well-being and healing of hospitalized children because it is evident that play is a critical part of one’s childhood. Through play, a child can further learn social skills, learn the process of their medical procedures, and accept the normalcy of play to be able to understand that it is okay for them to have fun and still be a child even through their struggles.
If therapeutic play is an essential part of patient health and wellbeing, who provides it in the hospital setting? Child Life Specialists are typically the professionals that conduct therapeutic play. According to St. Jude’s research, there are just over 400 hospitals with Child Life Specialists, therefore there are only a little over 400 hospitals nationwide promoting play therapy in hospitals (“Commonly Asked Questions About the Child Life Profession”). This is problematic because these 400 hospitals are only designated children’s hospitals. Every hospital nationwide needs these play therapy professionals because often, for emergencies and emergency procedures, you go to the hospital closest to your home and most of the time that will not be a children specific hospital.
To further understand the benefits of therapeutic play, the topic needs to be considered with an integrative approach. The integrative approach draws from multiple disciplines, in this case, psychology, human services, and education. Information from each of these disciplines will highlight the understanding and importance of therapeutic play. Each discipline includes professionals who study the development of children and understand the effects of which play and normalcy have on a child’s intellectual growth.
Psychology is a discipline which focuses on the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior in a given context. Through the understanding of psychology, it is realized that play is needed for a healthy brain development. An article by Pyschcentral.com states, “75 percent of the brain develops after a baby is born, in the years between birth and the early 20s” (Hartwell-Walker, 2018). With a statistic such as this, it is proven that play is an essential part of childhood. It states further on that, “Play during the teen years and into adulthood helps the brain develop even more connectivity…” (Hartwell-Walker, 2018). Through research, I learned that many psychologists including Sigmund Freud believed in the implantation of play in daily routine. As Freud stated with his Psychosexual stages, Initiative vs. Guilt relies heavily on adventure and play. Even the stage after this, Industry vs. Inferiority, thrives on achievement and accomplishment. This sense of accomplishment can be seen through imagination and friendly competition in games and play. Play in a hospitalized child is essential. They need to utilize normalcy and still live as close to a normal life as possible. Play is essential for development and once a hospitalized child is released, they may not only be behind physically, but emotionally and developmentally because of lack of play. If a child were to play with the Child Life Specialists and other medical professionals, their development would thrive. It is critical that we implement therapeutic play into every hospital so each individual can focus on being a child with a plethora of social interactions rather than confining to the isolation of a hospital. Many people believe that children in hospitals are incapable of play because of their illness. This has been found to be completely untrue because of the studies in the psychology discipline and play is now what makes up a Child-Life Specialist’s case load and course work.
In addition to psychology, the human services discipline also needs to be considered. This interdisciplinary field focuses on meeting human needs and improving one’s quality of life. Play therapy needs someone in the human services field to aid with the understanding of how play helps social interactions with the medical professionals as well as the family of the patient. I believe that these social interactions are much needed in a hospital which can often be seen as a scary and desolate place for everyone, but children especially. According to “Therapeutic Play in the Pediatric Urgent and Emergency Department: An Integrative Literature Review,” emergency room nurses fully believe in the benefits of play therapy. It was stated, “The studies captured indicate that therapeutic play has a significant impact in reducing the child’s anxiety during the undertaking of invasive procedures… This helps the child in reducing fear and discomfort, contributing to the nurse’s work process due to the child’s greater receptivity” (Martins de Freitas, Hinnah, and Voltani, 2016). Based on this evidence, it is proven that therapeutic play has unbelievable benefits on a child’s well-being. Having the health-care professionals state their opinion on therapeutic play’s effectiveness is powerful. These people are consistently on the front line and see how anxiety can induce lack of trust: something the professionals surely do not want to see from their patients. The article further stated how nurses proclaimed that they were more encouraged to use the intervention of therapeutic play due to how calming it was to the patients, and how it even was a natural healer that was more effective than any other therapy or medication. Play is a child's natural way of communication. With play therapy, they can increase their social skills while understanding the process of their medical procedures. Scary procedures such as a transplant or a surgery can be described using medical play. This allows children to work out any anxiety or fear they may have because of hospitalization. Medical play should be controlled by the player, and the caregiver or Child Life Specialist should listen and support the exploration that accompanies this play.
Teachers are constantly helping children develop their minds and reach their potential. They are some of the most qualified professionals to judge a child’s growth, so it is only fitting that the discipline of education is included in this integrative approach of studying play therapy. It has been proven that while playing, children are learning. Any child would be happy to hear this, but the results are astounding. Any form of play allows a child to develop self-control and self-discipline. Kids who have a well-developed sense of self do better in school, get along well with others, and overall make smarter decisions. Children who play also learn to interact better socially with other players making them wiser socially. Brittany Wilson and Dee Ray’s article about play therapy discusses their experiment of children who received sessions of child-centered play therapy vs. those who received no emotional therapy (Wilson and Ray, 2018). The main line of the conclusion was that teachers saw little to no differences between the children who received play therapy and those who didn’t, and parents saw a difference in aggression with more self-regulation and empathy. I believe with more studies on this subject, a different result could be concluded rather than what the experimenters found with the teachers. I believe there have not been enough conducted experiments, and therefore I take the stance that there needs to be further research done in order for this study to be considered useful. From what has been found with the article about nurses’ beliefs, I believe play therapy helps with self-regulation and discipline.
The reason for using an interdisciplinary approach for play therapy is based on interaction. Interaction alone is used to benefit the mind in developmental psychology with the attachments you make starting at birth. Human service professionals interact with people on a daily basis. Their jobs focus in part on enhancing one’s life and they do this through social interactions. Education professionals study the development of a child’s learning, but they also study their social development and how well they interact with their peers.
My insights through this thesis has shown me that an interdisciplinary perspective needs to be used in an area such as therapeutic play. I believe that therapeutic play is effective for hospitalized children because of how many professionals believe in its importance and how they too believe that play is a natural healer and gives normalcy to hospitalized children. Psychologists, human service professionals, and educators could all come together to see the vast improvements in physical and mental health through a daily integration such as play. Nurses, psychologists, Child Life Specialists, etc. would all be able to come together to improve hospitals and patients’ overall well-being. My insight began as believing play therapy was necessary. After extensive research, I believe that hospitals are not nearly as effective without play therapy. It enhances societal participation and increases the healing process and well-being of all participating patients. All hospitals need therapeutic play and the Child-Life Specialist profession because it has been proven that play at all ages inspires a strong healing process. I challenge all hospitals to incorporate play therapy. As of now, hundreds and thousands of hospitals are without this powerful healing tool, and therefore it’s youngest patients are suffering. With therapeutic play in every hospital, there would vast improvements to all patients’ well-being and learning.
Bibliography
Borges Martins de Freitas, Bruna Hinnah, and Sirlei dos Santos Araújo Alves Voltani. “Therapeutic Play in the Pediatric Urgent and Emergency Department: An Integrative Literature Review.” Cogitare Enfermagem, vol. 21, no. 1, Jan. 2016, pp. 1–8. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=113038730&site=eds-live.
Caleffi, Camila Cristina Ferreira, et al. “Contribution of Structured Therapeutic Play in a Nursing Care Model for Hospitalised Children.” Revista Gaucha de Enfermagem, vol. 37, no. 2, June 2016, p. e58131. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1590/1983-1447.2016.02.58131.
“Commonly Asked Questions About the Child Life Profession.” St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, www.stjude.org/treatment/services/clinics-and-services/child-life/for-students/commonly-asked-questions-about-the-child-life-profession.html.
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Hartwell-Walker, Marie. “The Benefits of Play.” Psych Central, 8 Oct. 2018, psychcentral.com/lib/the-benefits-of-play/.
“Pediatric Surgery.” Driscoll Childrens Hospital, www.driscollchildrens.org/specialty/pediatric-surgery/postoperative-care/therapeutic-play.
Silva, Sabrina Gisele Tobias da, et al. “Influence of Therapeutic Play on the Anxiety of Hospitalized School-Age Children: Clinical Trial.” Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem, vol. 70, no. 6, Nov. 2017, pp. 1244–1249. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1590/0034-7167-2016-0353.
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