Cognitive-behavioral play therapy for anxiety and depression.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES OF COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL PLAY THERAPYCognitive-behavioral play therapy (CBPT) is a developmentally appropriate treatment that has been developed and used with young children (3-8 years old). CBPT is based primarily on cognitive-behavioral theories of emotional development and psychopathology. The foundation of this approach is based on work of Aaron Beck (e.g., 1964Beck (e.g., , 1976. Behind cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is the belief that behavior is mediated through cognitive processes and that an individual's thoughts determine how she or he feels and behaves in situations. Emotions are determined in large part from one's perception of events-not the event itself. As a result, the cognitions and emotions determine how a person reacts and responds to such 4

Child-centered play therapy with young children who are anxious: A controlled trial

“…However, intervention is necessary when a child's anxiety response exceeds the level of threat in reality and surpasses what is developmentally expected. Clinical levels of anxiety that are intensely experienced, impair children's ability to master developmentally appropriate tasks, and prevent the ability to self-regulate when the anxiety provoking event is not occurring (Knell & Dasari, 2006). When anxiety manifests in the ways stated above, it has outgrown developmental appropriateness and may have surpassed the normal threshold (Lyness-Richard, 1997;Muris, 2007;Ollendick, Grills & Alexander, 2001).…”

“…Unfortunately, prevalence of anxiety for young children below the age of 6 is not specifically available. These high levels of anxiety that are intensely experienced impair children's ability to master developmentally appropriate tasks, and prevent their ability to self-regulate when the anxiety provoking event is not occurring (Knell & Dasari, 2006). Children diagnosed with anxiety disorders display deeper negative emotions and struggle to regulate their emotions, leading to overall functional impairment (Carthy, Horesch, Apter & Gross, 2010).…”

Pretend Play as an Intervention for Children With Cancer: A Feasibility Study

“…The ability to engage in pretend play relates to divergent thinking (ability to generate ideas) and coping ability (see Russ, 2014, for a review) and can facilitate insights in problem solving (Wyver & Spence, 1999). When engaging in pretend play that is facilitated and monitored by a trained adult, children can be indirectly instructed on how to express, modulate, and label their emotions (Knell & Dasari, 2016; Russ, 2004) and thereby gain new skills. In this article, pretend play, is defined as adult-facilitated play that allows children to try out different solutions to problems, and, when introduced to different story scenarios, to practice situations with different endings (Moore & Russ, 2006).…”

Research on Alleviating Children’s Nighttime Fear Using a Digital Game

“…In the field of psychology, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is widely used to alleviate children's anxiety and fear. This method exposes children to systematic, progressive, and strictly controlled fearful situations and stimuli, so that children become habituated to what they were afraid of, thereby eliminating the fear [19]. Some studies have developed more effective methods to deal with children's nighttime fears.…”