Quote:
When children experience emotional upset or trauma, their problems are sometimes made worse by well-meaning adults who either don’t notice their distress or insist that they express themselves through an adult medium: verbal language. Play therapy, on the other hand, recognizes that imaginative play is the mode of expression most comfortable and natural to children and focuses on helping them express their emotions. A form of psychodynamic treatment, play therapy takes for granted the fact that, once aided in expression, children are able to resolve their anxieties themselves.
The equipment of play therapy is simple and familiar. Dolls, play dishes, soldiers, stuffed animals, and sandboxes all have their place in the play therapy room. The job of the therapist, however, is a bit more challenging, because he or she must refrain from guiding the child in a particular direction or asking pointed questions. The therapist’s task is partly to observe the child’s play and recognize the child’s emotions and help bring them to expression. The second, very important, task is for the therapist to accept the child unconditionally.
A well-known example of successful play therapy is documented in Dr. Virginia Axline’s book Dibs in Search of Self. Dibs is an emotionally disturbed 5-year-old whose teachers fear he may have brain damage. In his play therapy sessions with Dr. Axline, however, a different picture emerges. Dibs’ play with a dollhouse and several dolls reveals that he feels cut off from his family and that he is angry with them for locking him in his room. This theme is repeated in play with animals in the room’s sandbox; he frees them from captivity again and again. During the sessions, Dr. Axline is careful not to express preference for any of Dibs’ activities, and most of her comments are simply reflecting back to him what he has just said. Additionally, through her choices to help him express his anger rather than offering him comfort in it, Dr. Axline fosters in Dibs a sense of emotional independence. At the end of the case study, Dibs has emerged as a content, intelligent, compassionate child.
According to the passage, which of the following is a reason that play therapists help disturbed children express their emotions?
(A) Children express themselves through a different medium than adults. - So, what.
(B) Children sometimes experience emotional upset or trauma. - This isn't a reason POE
(C) The therapist’s task is to accept the child unconditionally. - One of the challenges for therapist,hence POE.
(D) Therapists observe children’s behavior and recognize the emotions being expressed. - How therapist derive conclusion from the therapy, hence its not the reason. S, POE
(E) Children can resolve their own anxieties once they have been aided in expression. - From Para 2 and 3 we derive that a play therapist does nothing more than interpreting the child's actions. Hence, the therapist knows that the child can actually help himself/hrself. Hence, the Therapist helps as an interpretor. Thus, answer.