FACS 361 Exam 3 - Liberty University

Letting children know that they have the capacity for successfully executing the behavior or making the decision in question

What is the definition Kottman (2011) gives for returning responsibility to the child

\-to empower the children -to convey that the therapist believes that they can be successful -to promote problem-solving skills -to give them an experience of trying something that they might not usually attempt.

What are the four goals outlined for returning responsibility to the child?

Success is allowing child to handle consequences of their own choices- leading to increased independence, self-responsibility, creativity

When has responsibility “successfully” been returned to the child? What three things should it lead to?

Let’s children experience a feeling of power that they might not regularly experience / leads to independence, self-responsibility, and creativity

What is not considered "success" in this regard?

Behavior and decision

What are the two categories of returning responsibility?

1\. explicitly asking for help 2. implies a need for help 3. when the therapist feels a need to help the child

What are the three situations within play therapy in which returning responsibility could be appropriate?

Explicitly – “Can you tie my shoes?”

Implicitly – “I can’t tie my shoes.”

Therapist determines help is needed – Child is jumping up and down to reach something up high / looking around playroom as in having trouble deciding what to do

Be able to identify examples of questions/statements of these three situations and two categories.

1\. direct 2. indirect 3. a combination

What are the three main styles of returning responsibility?

\-the therapist expressly tells children that it is up to them to execute the behavior or make the choice without assistance-simply tell the child-make a guess about the child's implicit ask for help and then make a direct claim-make an encouraging remark-reflect feelings

What is the direct approach? How might this be applied?

\-using the child's metaphor-using minimal encouragers-restating content, reflecting feelings, or tracking-applying the whisper technique

What are the four versions of the indirect approach?

\-the therapist believes that the child is not capable of taking responsibility for the behavior-the child is engaging in regressive behavior-the child's history indicates that the child may need someone to take care of him or her in certain situations-the child's life is not going particularly well, and the child needs special nurturing for a limited period of time

What are four situations when it may not be appropriate to return responsibility to the child?

\-return responsibility when a child asks the therapist to do something the child CAN do without help-child asks the therapist to make a decision that the child has not attempted to make alone

What is the general consensus as to the use of returning responsibility to the child?

1\. practical questions ex: what time is it? 2. Personal questions ex: Are you married? 3. Relationship questions ex: do you play with other kids in this room? 4. Ongoing-process questions ex: can you guess what I am drawing?

What are the four categories of questions children might ask? Be able to recognize an example of each.

\-just answer the question directly

When the question seems to be a straightforward request for information, what is usually the most sensible strategy for dealing with these questions?

brief-straightforward-convey simple information-or a truthful 'i dont know'

What are some practical suggestions for answering the child’s straightforward requests for information?

\-to encourage the child to discover or determine an answer on their own

What would be a reason a therapist might ignore a child’s question?

NO it is important for the therapist not to ignore the child while ignoring the question-make eye contact, smile, and convey confidence that the child can answer the question for themselves

Should a therapist ignore a child while ignoring a child’s question?

\-counseling responses designed to convey interest and understanding to the client in as few words as possible

What is a minimal encourager?

\-umm, hmm, well-smiling and nodding-repeating one or two words fo the clients sentence like "what color?"

What are some examples of a minimal encourager?

\-avoid answering questions that the child can answer without assistance-stalling is for the child to answer the question in the interval provided by the minimal encourager

Why would a therapist choose to use minimal encouragement

give the child time to answer the question for him/hersefl

Is the stalling tactic to give the child time to answer the question for him/herself, or for the therapist to think of what to say next?

Return the initiative to the client so that he or she must then consider whether to ask the question again, find his or her own answer to the question, or decide that the answer is not worth pursuing

What would be the purpose of restating the question?

\-personal questions that violate socially appropriate boundaries or are inappropriate in some other way, the therapist should decline to answer

When would it be appropriate for the therapist to decline to answer a child’s question?

The “art” of play therapy

What phrase does the author use to describe integration of the basic skills used in play therapy?

Deciding when to use a skill, the integration of several different skills together that works more smoothly and efficaciously than an isolated skill would, and the melding of the therapist’s personality and interactional style with the play therapy skills

What three parts are necessary in this process?

To remember that there is no correct skill

What is the key to the selection of the “correct” skill for a particular situation in the playroom? (Hint: Is there a “correct” skill?)

Must believe that the play therapy process will flow in a way that is helpful to children; allow these things to be your best teachers

What does the author mean by “trust the process,” “trust yourself,” and “trust the children” when deciding what skills to use?

Theoretical orientation, therapist’s intuition and experience, therapist’s personal preference and personality, the individual child, context of the child’s life, the course of the play, and the phase of the therapy; no certain order of importance

What are the various facets involved in the choice of appropriate skills for each play therapy situation? Is there an order of importance among these facets?

Learn mechanics of blending skills / decide which skills blend smoothly and which ones clash / practice using the skills in isolation and in combination and experiment with making decisions about when to integrate and how to time your interventions

What are the two methods of skill integration discussed by the author? Be familiar with each

Talk about play object and/or (if you have enough information about the child and his or her situation) make a cause-and-effect attribution linking two different skills

As a new play therapist learns to integrate skills, what is the recommended way to go about using these two methods?

A compound sentence that just combines the two different skills / blend two skills in a simple sentence, using a feeling word as a descriptor for how the child is doing something or reacting / use several different sentences, with each containing a different skill / Talk about play object, sometimes using a metaphor and/or personifying it / (if you have enough information about the child and his or her situation) make a cause-and-effect attribution linking two different skills

Be familiar with the mechanics of blending skills (5 examples given by author). Be able to identify examples.

Limiting the length, monitoring the nonverbal elements of the communication, and avoiding hidden messages or underlying subtexts

What are some important aspects of blending skills that must be kept in mind

Tracking/restatement of content; reflection of feelings blends well with other basic skills

Tracking/restatement of content do NOT pair with limiting – don’t add to limiting process

Which basic skills meld well together, and which do not?

Situations in the playroom in which you feel uncomfortable; recognize patterns in these times

1\.       When seeking to better infuse skills into your own personal interaction style, what are two questions to ask yourself?

Visualization, practice, gain experience

What are three suggestions of what you can do to become more comfortable with infusing basic skills into your own personal interactional style?