The Case Study On Play Therapy With An Autistic Boy

Children's autism is Pervasive Developmental Disorders and appears in babyhood. The autistic children have social communication disorders, language communication disorders and abnormal behaviors and interests. The therapy with autism has attracted extensive attention in our societyPlay is language of children. Play is medium of play therapy by which children express their natural feelings, uncover their problems and relieve their puzzles. Children learn how to control, direct, express and accept themselves and make themselves more creative.Sandplay Therapy is a kind of play therapy. Children play sand, water and miniatures in "free and protected" space provided by therapists. Sandplay makes children express their feelings freely, inspires their imagination and arouses their self-healing potential.The case study discussed these issues by play therapy with a 3-year-old autistic boy. The therapy had processed for one and a half year and included 26 sessions. The case study found: the boy's play therapy went through 3 phrases, including "knowing the therapeutic conditions well", "establishing of therapeutic relationship", "developing play therapy evolutionally"; the clues from which to judge relationship included "verbal and nonverbal interaction between therapist and the boy", "the boy's dealing with his parents ", "his 'first' behavior", the aim of establishing was to form "mother-child unity"; the relationship between therapist and the boy's parents passed through "admitting the facts", "opening their feelings" and "detailed guidance"; the development of the boy's play consisted in the larger degree of digging and moving sand(showing that the therapy went deep into the boy's mind and his sense of strength was improving), the increasing of imaginative plays(showing that the boy began to pay attention to others and knew how to play), from playing by himself to cooperating with therapist(showing that he felt the happiness in cooperating and interacting with others and was gaining self-confidence which was favorable to be transferred to his lives and be used to communicating with others), sand and water were very important therapeutic factors for the boy(sand could mobilize his sense of feeling and touching , awakening his energy and regulating it. water could provide relaxed feeling, sense of being contained and satisfied andenlighten his imagination).From reflection of his parents and teachers, we knew that his symptoms based on diagnostic items had alleviated. The play therapy with the boy was resultfiil.