An Investigation Of The Characteristics Of Sandplay And Sandplay Therapy On Social Withdrawal In 4-to 5-year-old Children

Since the end of the 19th century, the importance of peer relationship in the development of children has been highly valued. Meanwhile, socially withdrawn children, without good peer relationship, became a group of concern. It is recognized that social withdrawal meant all kinds of continual and cross-situational solitary behavior of children in social context. Children are suffering and will suffer from social withdrawal significantly.One purpose of this research was to investigate the characteristics of sandplay products that made by withdrawn children. Another purpose was to explore the possible use of sandplay therapy as a technique to intervene social withdrawal in 4-to 5-year-old children in kindergarten. This research will contribute to our examination of social withdrawn children, enrich the basic research of sandplay therapy, and bring new perspective to the intervention of social withdrawal, which will have both theoretical and practical value.This dissertation is consisted of three parts:review of the literature and introduction of this research, experimental study, conclusion, suggestions for preschool education and limitations of the research.In the first part of the dissertation, we put forward the purpose of the research on the basis of the relative studies reviewed on social withdrawal and sandplay therapy.There are two studies in the second part of the dissertation.Study one is a comparative study of children's sandplay between children of different genders and groups. We expect that some sandplay characteristics that are related to social withdrawal can be found, which will supply more information to the empirical study of sandplay. The results of study one are as follows:①There is no significant difference between the sandplay of boys and girls.②Children with higher withdrawn tendency reveal less themes and scenes in the sandtray than children with lower withdrawn tendency.③Children with higher withdrawn tendency spend shorter time on their initial sandtray than children with lower withdrawn tendency.④The sandtray's boundary of higher withdrawn tendency group is obscurer than that of the lower withdrawn tendency group.⑤Higher withdrawn group do poorer than lower withdrawn group on summarizing the theme of the sandplay.Study two is a case study, investigating the healing process of a socially withdrawn child through her sandplay process, the changes of symbolic meaning and the peer interaction. Through the sandplay therapy, the case Z made great progress in several aspects. She got a lower score on the Child Social Withdrawal Questionnaire for Teacher. Positive changes appeared in her play process. The progress that she made in the sandplay process transfered to her daily life.In the third part of the dissertation, the main findings of this research are concluded, suggestions on preschool education are given, and the limitations of the research are introspected.