Published Paper Details:

Play therapy represents a unique form of treatment that is not only geared toward adolescent children, but is translated into a language children can comprehend and utilize�the language of play. For the referring provider or practitioner, questions may remain regarding the nature, course, and efficacy of play therapy. This article reviews the theoretical underpinnings of play therapy, some practical considerations, and determinately a summary of the current state of research in regard to play therapy. The authors present the practicing psychiatrist with a road map for referring a patient to play therapy or initiating it in felicitous cases. Play therapy is of vital paramount for the salubrious development of children. From a developmental perspective, play offers ample physical, emotional, cognitive, and gregarious benefits. It sanctions children and adolescents to develop motor skills, experiment with their (gregarious) behavioural repertoire, simulate alternative scenarios, and address the sundry positive and negative consequences of their department in a safe and engaging context. Children with a chronic or life-threatening disease may face obstacles that negatively impact play and play development, possibly impeding developmental milestones, beyond the authentic illness itself. Currently, there is constrained understanding of the impact of (1) aberrant or suppressed play and (2) play-cognate interventions on the development of chronic diseased children. We argue that stimulating play compartment enhances the adaptability of a child to a (chronic) stressful condition and promotes cognitive, convivial, emotional and psychomotor functioning, thereby reinforcing the substructure for their future health. Systematic play research will avail to develop interventions for puerile patients, to better cope with the negative consequences of their illness and stimulate salubrious development.