I was very interested in this article because it discussed children with intellectual disabilities and how usually when they engage in problem behavior, it is to gain the experiences they need. I know a young student who came to me with a 504 Plan from preschool.. The student has sensory issues and has no concept of space. He is constantly leaning on another student or sitting on another student. He does not recognize when he is doing these things. What I do notice, is when this child gets upset or angry he intentionally needs to shove/push another student. It does not make a difference who this student is that he shoves or push. I am having difficulty with this student, and reading this article about play therapy, made me think that this may be a student that can benefit from this intervention. I noticed self-regulation would be huge with this student. The article discussed how play therapy is great for independence and self-regulation.
Although, I did enjoy reading this article, I felt as if I still wanted more information on what exactly is done in play therapy. "Free Play" is usually a part of our kindergarten day. it teaches kids how to share and socialize. "Free Play" is actually where I see the most trouble with the student I am concerned about. I know it is because it is not as structured as the rest of the day. There are rules, of course, but students have more freedom than they do other parts of the day. I see that this is where the behavior usually occurs. Overall, this was a very interesting article and it opened me up to new ideas about potential interventions for students.
S Swan, K. L., & Ray, D. C. (2014). Effects of child-centered play therapy on Irritability and hyperactivity behaviors of children with intellectual disabilities. Journal Of Humanistic Counseling, 53(2), 120-133. doi:10.1002/j.2161-1939.2014.00053.x
You bring up a great point that "free-play" is probably difficult for some of your students because it is so unstructured. For some of my kindergarten students that I have right now, we are slowly introducing them to "free play" Instead of setting them loose with all 20 kids on the carpet, we pull a few aside, give them limited play choices, and help facilitate the play interactions. We started this in the resource room and have now moved into the regular education classroom. Still limiting the numbers of choices and students, but it is helping us teach the necessary skills for social interactions.
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