CLINICAL COMMENT FROM GUEST EDITOR FRANC HUDSPETH:
Children up to 10 [years old] don’t lend
themselves to the playroom as easily as little kids do... they’re a little suspicious. So, they don’t play right away, unless it looks structured and simple and isn’t going to reveal anything of themselves, until they feel relaxed, comfortable, and trusting. Then, they’ll pretend more. Although using the computer [elsewhere] makes them think,
“Where’s the
technology [in the playroom]?” They can move from that. They’re not stuck there, necessarily, but it takes longer because [the playroom] is a different world [than they’re used to].
Lessie articulated concern that teaching children to play “a particular way” may not allow for free expression to “come out of the little person.” From a child-centered perspective, Garry posited, “I don’t think it means that they don’t know how to play just because they don’t use the puppet in the way that we might want it to be used.” Garry disagreed that children need to be taught to play, framing play therapy as “a time for discovery. If we won’t into the role they expect, telling them what something is for or what to do, and they don’t have the electronic mechanisms in the playroom... they will discover,” though “it takes some time for the discovery process to occur.” From an ecosystemic perspective, Kevin shared:
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with teaching a kid options for using a material because... [s/he] didn’t grow up knowing what a puppet was. Somewhere along the line somebody demonstrated it. So, having some education is not interfering with children’s developmental process. It’s facilitating the developmental process.
The core questions for Terry, though, were, “Are kids not encouraged to be imaginative and creative anymore... are they dependent on technology?” She lamented that many families do not know how to play interactively together. When asked, “What does your family do for fun?” she said, “close to 90% of families reported, ‘We play video games together or we watch television together.’ ” Kevin observed that “kids are using toys, but the themes are not internal” because “it’s easier to take a theme you are given. So, sometimes the play ends up being an extension of a video game.” He described a child who played Star Wars™ “verbatim.” But, then, he “slowly realized it’s not verbatim. pulling out of it means something to him.” According to Kevin, the play therapist’s task is “to watch for how they’ve tweaked it in some way to put themselves into it.”
Lessie professed disquiet that these themes were “all coming out
of games” rather than lived experiences, stating, “I know there’s life in television but it’s not real life. It is not the family that I live in or the community or the neighborhood. It is something that is staged for me
to watch.” Her comment reminded Kevin of reading children’s fairytales with them. He made the comparison, “Fairytale content is as bizarre as some video-game content.” This spurred discussion about whether play therapists need to be current with the latest children’s trends. When shifted to video games and characters,” Louise shared a generational perspective, highlighting the power of the therapeutic process for meeting children where they are.
It’s harder for us to relate to the things they do, but the process is still very much the same. And look what stays stable: They all love bop or the current villains, they all know what to do with the bop bag. They like to push it and make it move. So, the process is still there, it’s just a little different and I guess we have to get used to them as much as they have to try to come to our world.
Kevin asserted that “the issue is not the material or the toys in the playroom, it’s that the electronics [may] interfere with the relational part” of play therapy. This idea was met with wholehearted agreement from the rest of the group. Garry tendered that “maybe what we’re concluding is that the tablet shouldn’t be there if it actively does interfere with the relationship.” The discussion turned to the importance of preserving the relationship in play therapy when technology is used.
Preserving the Therapeutic Relationship To quell concerns, Terry emphasized how “the relationship is foundational, an essential piece,” of play therapy, while Linda called it “paramount.” Kevin added that if tablet use “starts to interfere [with the relationship], then we have problems,” with which the group largely agreed. Searching for parallels, Louise reiterated:
If you keep it within the parameters that allow you to interact in a meaningful way with them, then they want to tell you and show you what they’re doing, or include you. Do you see that as doing what we would’ve done in the old days with crayons?
Terry suggested it is “just the media” that changes. Kevin provided another analogy. There’s no difference between “a kid bringing a book from home and saying, ‘This is a really cool book! Let me show it to you,’
www.a4pt.org | September 2018 | PLAYTHERAPY | 21
An update to the quintessential debate: Technology or not in the playroom.
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