This study attempted to develop a list of case formulation components for play therapy, examine play therapists’components and investigate variables relating to the case formulation components.
To elicit case formulation components for play therapy...
This study attempted to develop a list of case formulation components for play therapy, examine play therapists’components and investigate variables relating to the case formulation components.
To elicit case formulation components for play therapy, a total of 34 play therapists were interviewed, and a content analysis of the interviews was conducted as a preliminary study. For the classification and nomenclature of the results of the preliminary study, the appropriacy was verified by play therapist specialists and child psychology professors three times in total. Then, final 32 components were chosen. To verify differences in the search of play therapists’components depending on the search level, disability categories and developmental stages using the final components, a total of 204 play therapists who had the experience of case formulation before were examined. For data analysis, frequency, percentage, one-way analysis of variance and t-test were conducted.
The study found the followings:
First, a total of 32 play therapy case formulation components were chosen through appropriacy verification. They include personal information, search for chief problems in child report, search for chief problems in parent and guardian (or teacher) report, body, propensity, language, emotion, relationship, coping ability, child’s strength and weakness, parent, family, environment, psychological assessment, assessment on parent-child relationship assessment, developmental assessment, sense assessment, segmentation of play activities, category of the play activity segment, script description of the play activity segment, sphere of the play activity segment, affective components of the play activity segment, cognitive components of the play Activity segment, narrative components of the play activity segment, developmental components of the play activity segment, adaptive and defensive strategies, child’s desire for the therapy, parent’s desire for the therapy, goal setting for play therapy, desire for parent counseling and goal setting for parent counseling.
Second, in terms of the search level for play therapists’ components, the affective components of the play activity segment was the highest, followed by the parent and guardian (or teacher) report of the search for chief problems. Meanwhile, a relatively low search level was found in sense assessment.
Third, the search level of the play therapists’case formulation components varied depending on disability categories. Among a total 32 subcomponents, in other words, difference in the search level by disability categories was found in all components except for personal information, cognition, child’s strength and weakness, sense assessment, category of the play activity segment and cognitive components of the play activity segment.
Fourth, the search level of the play therapists’ case formulation components differed depending on developmental stages. Among a total 32 subcomponents, in other words, difference in the search level by developmental stages was found in search for chief problems in child report, propensity, cognition, emotion, coping ability, child’s strength and weakness, psychological assessment, parent-child relationship assessment, developmental assessment, script description of the play activity segment, affective components of the play activity segment, cognitive components of the play activity segment, narrative components of the play activity segment, developmental components of the play activity segment, adaptive and defensive strategies and child’s desire for the therapy.
The study results unveiled the components of play therapy case formulation through literature review and empirical data. As a result, it appears that they would be helpful in making play therapists build expertise and understand client children in a planned and systematic manner, enhancing the effects of the play therapy. In addition, it is expected that they would be available in training and education for play therapists and promoting case formulation-related studies.