Drama Therapy for Children

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how role-playing appears to be a natural part of development that is instrumental for learning and identity development. The paper further looks at how role-playing has been incorporated into various behavioral therapies as well as learning initiatives for children. In addition, the paper examines the contexts in which role-playing or drama therapies have been utilized with children and how effective these interventions have proven to be. The paper explores why a clinician would choose drama-based therapies instead of alternate interventions.

From the Paper:

"Role playing has been used in both skills training and therapy contexts with children for various purposes. Skills training programs focused on the prevention of childhood abduction have proven useful and effective (Johnson, Miltenberger, Knudson, Egemo-Helm, Kelso, Jostad, Langley, (2006). Based on studies that assessed these types of skills training programs, it was determined that children have the ability to learn safety skills and demonstrate the use of these skills in simulated abduction situations where the children are presented with a typical abduction lure (Johnson et al., 2006). In these simulated situations, children were taught self-protective behaviors in order to prevent abduction."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Johnson, B.M., Miltenberger, R.G., Knudson, P., Egemo-Helm, K., Kelso, P., Jostad, C., Langley, L. (2006). A preliminary evaluation of two behavioral skills training procedures for teaching abduction-prevention skills to schoolchildren. Journal of Applied Behavioral Analysis, 39(1), 25-34.
• Gatheridge, B.J., Miltenberger, R.G., Huneke, D.F., Satterlund, M.J., Mattern, A.R., Johnson, B.M., Flessner, C.A. (2004). Comparison of two programs to teach firearm injury prevention skills to 6- and 7-year-old children. Pediatrics, 114(3), e294-e299.
• Salmivalli, C. (1999). Participant role approach to school bullying: implications for interventions. Journal of Adolescence, 22(4), 453-9.
• Gronna, S.S., Serna, L.A., Kennedy, C.H., Prater, M.A. (1999). Promoting generalized social interactions using puppets and script training in an integrated preschool. A single-case study using multiple baseline design. Behavior Modification, 23(3), 419-40.

More papers on Drama Therapy for Children:

• Case Study # 105969 : "Evidence Based Multimodal Therapy for Children"
• Research Paper # 113086 : "Art Therapy for Children's Grief"
• Book Review # 95909 : "Physical Therapy for Children"

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