Combining play therapy with behavior modification in child counseling

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify how child therapists perceive and utilize both behavior modification and play therapy. Sixty surveys were sent to child therapists in Wisconsin. These surveys had six questions that asked participants to rank their beliefs in behavior modification and play therapy on a Likert scale. In addition, there were six questions, also ranked on a Likert scale, which asked participants how often they used elements of play therapy and behavior modification. Paired sample t-test and Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient analyses were conducted to analyze the data. For child therapists, there was no significant difference in their belief in behavior modification over play therapy, or play therapy over behavior modification. In addition, there was no significant difference in the utilization of either of the therapies. Also, child therapists that believed in the benefits of the one of the therapies were highly likely to use it in their practice. However, they were not likely to believe or utilize the other. A limitation to this study is that the results are not generizable to anywhere except Wisconsin. In the future, therapists in other parts of the country could be surveyed, to expand the reliability.