This essay talks about the issue of symbolic play being healing play for children. The essay looks at the idea of symbolic play, the utilization of symbolic play with children, the therapeutic value of symbolic play, using research to support the discussions. The essay discusses what is known by symbolic play, then progresses to discuss the value of symbolic play in children's development, taking a look at the various theories which may have been put forward to explain the value of play in children's development. The essay then moves on to look at various occasions where restorative play has been used, and is known as useful, such such as children who are experiencing a long-term disorder, who are hospitalized, who are awaiting surgery or who have experienced some form of trauma.
What is symbolic play? Symbolic play is, according to Piaget (1962) one of the main ways in which children figure out how to think in a representational manner, where representation is grasped as an activity through which children store information in line with the perceptual analysis of their ingoing activities (Leslie, 1987; Lyytinen et al. , 1997). Play essentially allows children to understand the things they experience and also to put these things in to point of view. As such, play is fundamentally very important to children's development (Piaget, 1962). Play is a great way where children understand the world, their connections with others and the rules and legislation that govern their passing through the globe. Play is, thus, a fundamental activity for children which allows them to form their personalities also to understand their place in the world, with regards to others.
Relevant of symbolic play in child development
Symbolic play, which comes up around age 1. 5 years, basically involves children substituting one item for another, and can constitute incorporating others directly into their play, pretend play or sequencing. This can mean that children pretend to be mom (or father) or that they use household what to reproduce day-to-day activities they have observed their parents doing, among other common symbolic play activities. This symbolic allows children to experiment with different roles and different varieties of being, which, as has been mentioned, allows children to comprehend, also to contextualise, their experience. As Piaget (1962) argues, such symbolic play allows children to comprehend the role of do it yourself and others, the use of things and the sequences of activities and activities whilst participating in. This allows children to comprehend objects, to learn about the properties of things and to learn about implications and causality (Piaget, 1962). Play thus allows children, among other things, to realize where their limitations are, to understand why things work in the ways they do and to understand how to connect to others. Symbolic play is thus, as has been reviewed, a simple developmental tool for children.
Watson and Zlotlow (1999) speak about symbolic play as, "an important attribute of children's early play, through the enactment of activities that are extremely familiar to the child in contexts that aren't typical for those activities". Enacting activities out of context allows the kid to explore, and understand, the role of providers in their lives, allowing them to understand how the entire world works and what their role is in this world. Symbolic play, therefore, has been argued to obtain three main features: the utilization of objects; the utilization of actions through the play; and people enacting the play (i. e. , brokers) (Watson and Zlotlow, 1999). The use of items can be undertaken in many forms, either through substitution, in which the object is used to represent another thing, through scenario-building, with the object being used to perform some job or in collaboration, with the object being found in various ways (Watson, 2008). The use of actions in play and the introduction of the agent in play follow certain habits with regards to the age of the kid, as does indeed the theme of children's symbolic play (Watson, 2008). The one thing that all symbolic play has in keeping, at whatever era or developmental stage the child is at, is that the child uses some representation of personal in their play. At age group four, for example, children will have advanced to fantasy play, but these fantasies will usually require themselves in becoming their illusion - a fireman or a prince, for example (Garvey, 1990). This allows these to explore different jobs and tasks.
Symbolic play is, therefore, a natural phenomena, that children follow effortlessly, as part of their development through childhood. As Reed (2007) argues, symbolic play links all four regions of a child's development, particularly cognitive, language, interpersonal/emotional and physical, and, therefore, is a fundamental part of the development of children. Symbolic play allows the kid to acquire knowledge and also to express and symbolize their ideas, thoughts and thoughts: as Vygotsky argues, in his sociocultural cognitive theory, symbolic play allows children to develop and self-regulate also to workout any problems they might face (Reed, 2007). It is in this aspect, then, that the restorative value of symbolic play becomes clear. As children constantly experiment with their environment, their peers and the other agencies they meet, and since the results of these tests are constantly being fed back again to lead to bolster certain behaviours or to elicit different habits of behaviours, the value of play as remedy is clear. Children who are transferring through a difficult minute and who need help understand this, to contextualise these issues in the platform of the existing knowledge, can, through participating in healing play, manage this. Therapeutic play allows them to experiment with the many outcomes and also to contextualise the problems they face, allowing them an possibility to work through these problems/difficult situations, through this working out their issues and coming to comprehend how to approach them.
The use of symbolic play as therapy
In terms of the utilization of symbolic play as therapy with children, as Bettelheim expresses, "Play permits the child to resolve in symbolic form unresolved problems of days gone by and to cope straight or symbolically with present concerns. It is also his most significant tool for getting ready himself for the future and its responsibilities" (Schaefer, 1995). Using play as a tool to help children through a hard stage in their lives is, therefore, grounded in theory and makes sense in light to the fact that children learn through play. The research shows, for example, that restorative play are a good idea in assisting children through hospital remains (William, 2007) or through surgery, with this therapeutic play being proven to reduce nervousness and increase overall well-being (Bowmer, 2002). As Moore and Russ (2006) discuss, pretend play can become a source of information for children, relating, as it does, to many areas of adaptive working including imagination, coping and emotional regulation. As Moore and Russ (2006) show, pretend play in hospital options can reduce anxiety and, through this, can reduce the likelihood of issues following surgery and makes it possible for children to conform easier to the difficulties of chronic condition.
The restorative value of symbolic play
In terms of the healing value of symbolic play, as Axline (1964) discusses, healing play can be supplied through one of two major approaches, namely via non-directive play remedy and via directive play remedy (Oaklander, 1988). Matching to Axline (1964), play therapy should be governed by eight concepts, particularly that the therapist and child must be more comfortable with one another; that the therapist accepts the kid as he/she is; that the child can freely point out their emotions; that the therapist is aware of the feelings the child expresses; that the therapist respects the child and their capacity to resolve their own problems; that the therapist does not attempt to impact the kid; that the remedy is carried out in its time; and that the only restrictions placed on the play remedy are those that anchor the therapy in real life (Axline, 1964). When the therapeutic play is provided through this framework, the advantages of the healing play can be many and different, as talked about above, with the troubled child benefitting greatly out of this intervention.
As Li and Lopez (2008) dispute, restorative play can be valuable not only in helping children through a hard stage in their lives but can be useful in assisting to in prepare children for a nerve-racking, or difficult, period that they could face. For example, children who are facing surgery or a serious disease can be helped to come quickly to terms with this by using restorative play. As Li and Lopez (2008) report, by reinforcing to medical and medical personnel that play is an essential part of the lives of small children, and be utilizing therapeutic play techniques, this may markedly enhance the anxiety that these children experience and makes it possible for these children to truly have a more positive prospect regarding their situation and the difficult things they will face, and therefore these are better equipped to handle these circumstances. As Li and Lopez (2008) dispute, therapeutic play can help enhance the resilience of children who face troubles and, so, it can be an important tool to use in those children who need help to are more resilient.
Children who've faced some type of stress, for example, can be aided through the fallout of the trauma through engaging in restorative play. By allowing the child the space to act out what they noticed, or what they have experienced, for example, the child will come to terms with this traumatic experience. This healing play could take the form of using puppets, or drawing, or role playing: whatever allows the kid to re-enact the function(s) and, through this, come to terms with what took place. The usage of restorative play in describing the loss of someone near to them is known to be specifically valuable, for example, as this may allow them to imagine the person is still here also to resolve any spectacular issues they had with them, or to slowly but surely come to terms with the fact that they are no more alive no longer able to be literally present with the child. The 'simple' action of participating in can, therefore, permit the child to come to terms numerous difficult thoughts, allowing the child to slowly are more able to handle the negative emotions that a traumatic event (such as witnessing a violent action or the sudden death of an close relative), permitting them to deal with these negative thoughts (Schaefer and O'Connor, 1994). As Schaefer and O'Connor (1994) dispute, role playing in particular can help children to face the negative post-trauma reactions that children might face, with role-play allowing children to relive the injury also to find various answers to their negative experience and thoughts.
Conclusion
In brief summary, then, this article has viewed the issue of symbolic play being healing play for children. The essay has looked, specifically, at the theory of symbolic play, the utilization of symbolic play with children and the restorative value of symbolic play. In regards to the theory of symbolic play, it's been seen that various theories have been proposed to explain the value of symbolic play in children's development, with many of these theories agreeing that play is a simple part of children's development and that play allows them to contextualise their encounters and to understand how these experiences determine that they should act and really should behave in different situations.
It is this feature of symbolic play that lends itself to being useful in assisting children come to terms with difficult events in their lives: as has been discussed, play allows children to explore different scenarios (even difficult cases), with this play allowing them to overcome any negative feelings or feelings they could experienced towards these scenarios. A child who's facing a hard surgery, for example, might be frightened, might worry for themselves and because of their families, but engaging in role play with this child (for example) allows them the possibility to explore different choices and release a few of their anxieties and concerns. It has been proven, as discussed, to lessen the anxiety these children feel also to enable the child's health insurance and well-being to be looked after, even under difficult circumstances. Likewise, a child who may have experienced trauma can be helped through their post-traumatic period by participating in some form of therapeutic play. This might normally contain helping the kid to act out their concerns and their experience, allowing the kid to eliminate all of their negative feelings and feelings based on the even, allowing the child to expel these from their psyche and then to carry on without transporting this burden along with them.
In realization, then, the essay shows that play is important for children and this, given its experimental nature and its potential to contextualise occurrences and connections for children, play is, at its very fact, therapeutic. Using play with children who need therapeutic interventions, then, makes perfect sense to allow children to comprehend the negative occurrences/emotions and also to overcome their doubts and anxieties regarding these negative incidents and emotions. Therapeutic play has been shown to be always a useful intervention oftentimes, including in hospitalized children and in children living with chronic illnesses, who are able to be helped through this difficult period by engaging in therapeutic play, which includes been shown to lessen their stress and anxiety levels. To conclude, then, healing play is an extension of the symbolic play that children take part in as a normal developmental process and can be handy in assisting children through difficult times in their life.
