physiological reactions, and surrounding environment through a state-of-being that is nurturing and accepting. There are many therapeutic activities for children that incorporate mindfulness, and facilitating the use of ideophones that depict their inner world can be another developmentally appropriate way to bring mindfulness into their lives.
Rhythms Many ideophones are rhythmic because of the repetition and patterns pitch, and volume in voice. Rhythm in therapeutic activity is well studied in the social and behavioral sciences. Ho et al. (2011) explored the effectiveness of the school counselor-led group drumming program with 106 4th and 5th grade students with socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. Rhythmic communication and rhythmic synchronicity formed integral parts of the program intervention. The authors reported that students in the drumming program improved social-emotional behavior. Daniel (2020; 2023) proposed “Rhythmic by using some rhythms in the treatment of autistic children. In addition, the six core elements of positive neurodevelopmental experience shared neural mechanisms for self-regulation and rhythm perception exist, and propose that improving beat synchronization skills in children may strongly address self-regulatory functioning. Kokal on prosocial behavior among synchronized adult participants in a drumming activity.
and structured activity, combining ideophones with child-centered play therapy skills can be an indirect way to introduce rhythms in play therapy. For example, a play therapist can use ideophones while tracking a child’s play to facilitate such synchronization moments. If a child is playing the role of a superhero and showing off his masterful sword skills and swift movements with it, a play therapist can track the behavior by using ideophones such as “schwing!! sch... sch.. sch, and with their ideophones, creating interpersonal and multisensory synchronization.
Therapeutic Application of Ideophones in Play Therapy Because of the aforementioned therapeutic factors in ideophones, adding ideophones to therapeutic responses in play therapy may help play therapists enhance therapeutic impacts of their responses to co- regulate, communicate their understanding and empathy, and provide children the necessary scaffolding for the neurosequential processing to start with problems associated with the lowest part of the brain
30 | PLAYTHERAPY
and move sequentially up the brain as improvements are seen (Perry, 2009). For example, play therapists can use ideophones in tracking. If a child is pretending to be a monster and walking with a big gait and strong steps, a play therapist can use tracking by saying “you are … them, a play therapist can track it by simply saying “pop……. pop…… facilitate children’s self-regulation (Kokal et al., 2011). Play therapists when a child becomes upset and growls because the building he was
The use of ideophones can be accompanied by natural movements and facial expressions, which may help convey genuineness in the can connect words with feelings, potentially making the expression of feelings more vivid and attuned for both the child and the play therapist.
If a play therapist assesses that the child is ready for the scaffolding to connect emotional processing of inputs from sensory systems to the higher level of the brain structure (from the limbic system to the cortex), a play therapist can be intentional in their responses and combine the ideophone with a word. For example, if a child shows relief with a big easing sigh after moving the painting she made demonstrate, ideophones can enhance play therapists’ efforts to
Cultural Considerations in Use of Ideophones The sound symbolism in ideophones is universal,
however,
ideophones are culturally bounded expressions and they can be vastly different depending on languages. For example, the heart beating regard to composition of ideophones based on gender and age. Play therapists should therefore work not to impose their own cultural ideophones on children who have an age-based or culturally different background from the therapist. They should also work to learn the their clients.
Conclusion Ideophones are unique expressions that exist universally and contain many potential therapeutic elements. The use of ideophones in play therapy may not only add variety to play therapists’ responses but also deepen their intentions to facilitate a child’s processing of their own experiences. The effectiveness of using ideophones in play therapy should be explored in future research.
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