The Assessment of Play Therapy and Child Counseling Competencies (APTCCC).

Abstract

We developed the Assessment of Play Therapy and Child Counseling Competencies (APTCCC) to measure child and play therapy trainees' clinical counseling competencies. We tailored the APTCCC to align with (a) the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (2016) Standards; (b) the Association for Play Therapy (2022e) Play Therapy Competencies; and (c) the Association for Play Therapy (2022d) Play Therapy Best Practices: Clinical, Professional, and Ethical Issues. In our article, we review (a) developmental needs of child and play therapy counseling trainees, (b) the importance of comprehensive and child-specific competency evaluation measures, and (c) present the APTCCC as an appropriate tool for evaluating the growth and development of counselors-in-training working with children.