POINT
Inclusion of Toy Guns Matters to Children LAUREN STERN WYNNE, PHD, LPC, NCC, RPT-S
Whether toy guns belong in the playroom remains an emotional and Lee, Meany-Walen, Carlson, Carnes-Holt, & Ware, 2013; Winburn, Dugger, & Main, 2017). After 20 years as a play therapist, my opinion is steady and grounded in literature and experience. Access to toy guns in the playroom is more helpful than harmful. Children play with toy guns in therapy for a myriad of reasons that go beyond violence.
EXPRESSING THE REALITIES OF LIFE Children need a broad array of toys with which they can fully express their needs, fears, concerns, and lives (Kottman, 2011; Landreth, 2012). Child clients can make a gun from their hands, but I am clinically reluctant to make them work harder than they need to.
For example, a play therapy client placed a gun in the back of his pants without verbally acknowledging it was there. After the play therapist tracked, “You have put something in the back of your pants,” there because “guns aren’t allowed in Walmart.” It appeared this child was working through conflicting messages about where guns could be taken.
As a school counselor in Georgia during the aftermath of 9/11, none of my students were directly affected by the planes used as weapons, but several used an airport set to create scenes where planes crashed into buildings and people died. I was grateful my students could easily access the materials (i.e., toy planes) they needed to work through their distress about what they knew happened in the larger world. I am doubtful this play would have happened if not triggered by easy access to the “right” means of self-expression. Furthermore, at no point in my career have planes been on the short list of toys to take out of the playroom, despite their potential for aggressive play.
THE MIDDLE GROUND
USING TOY GUNS IN NON-AGGRESSIVE WAYS Some play therapy settings allow the inclusion of toy guns without exception. Others enforce strong zero-tolerance policies about the exclusion of any weapon-like play media, including green army soldiers all rule on avoiding aggression can limit therapeutic work.
For example, one client played with a dart gun. Initially, it appeared to be mastery play with successive attempts to hit a target. However, he began to share a story about shooting targets with a beloved family member who recently died. In that moment, his gun play expressed his grief process and allowed for memorialization.
Another child found the playroom’s toy gun, picked it up, dropped to the floor to not be seen holding it, and clearly stated her caregivers said guns are not for touching. The play therapist reflected, “Your family believes guns are not for playing with.” The child nodded, and gave the toy gun to her because “only adults should hold guns.” In mere seconds, this child easily shared her family’s operating values, made sense of a parental message, and practiced self-control.
Whether working through something traumatic or attempting to express power, mastery, self-control, or make sense of messages about guns, we have a professional duty to allow child clients full access and expression through a diversity of play media. Experience is a good teacher, and child clients are excellent professors who teach master classes about what they need to express themselves.
Searching for Common Ground AMANDA WINBURN, PHD, SB-RPT, NCC, NCSC
Play therapists differ in their beliefs about aggressive behavior and about aggressive toys in the playroom. Some theorists argue that aggression is natural in the developmental process. Moustakas (1959) contended darts” appropriate because these items allow them to “express strong aggression in socially acceptable ways” (p. 7). Other play therapists guns – is both unnecessary and potentially harmful (e.g., Fuhrman & Franz, 2010; Laue, 2015). Drewes (2008) claimed that having aggression- releasing toys increases a child’s likelihood of demonstrating aggressive behavior, in turn, requiring the play therapist to set more limits due to the child’s circumscribed ability to self-regulate or to self-soothe.
16 | PLAYTHERAPY | June 2018 |
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a middle ground on this issue. Winburn, Dugger, and Main (2017) explored trends from 307 play therapists’ beliefs about whether to include toy guns as aggression-release toys in the playroom. A total of 71% believed toy guns should not be allowed in schools, but 84% believed that toy guns should be allowed in the playroom for therapeutic purposes. Additionally, 78% stated that they currently had toy guns in their playroom: 74% had between 1-3 toy guns, 19% had 3-5, and 7% had 7 or more. This data indicates that although play therapists might be concerned about guns and gun violence, these concerns did not translate into excluding guns from the playroom (Winburn et al., 2017). Play therapists articulated that some children need aggressive toys to fully express themselves and that therapeutic value outweighs therapists’ personal beliefs or attitudes towards guns (Winburn et al., 2017).
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