Table of Contents

Preface xi

Contributors xiii

Part I Play Therapy: Its Therapeutic Power and Research Effects

1 The Therapeutic Powers of Play and Play Therapy 3
Charles E. Schaefer and Athena A. Drewes

2 Meeting the Early Mental Health Needs of Children Through School-Based Play Therapy: A Review of Outcome Research 17
Sue C. Bratton

Part II Implementing Play Therapy In the Schools

3 Guidelines for Incorporating Play Therapy in the Schools 61
Kristi Perryman and Judy Doran

4 Challenges and Barriers to Implementing Play Therapy in Schools 87
Dee C. Ray

Part III Play-Based Assessments

5 Using Play Therapy Assessment in an Elementary and Intermediate School Setting 107
Mary May Schmidt

6 Transdisciplinary Play-Based Assessment and Intervention in the Primary Years 123
Toni Linder and Brittney Bixby

Part IV Play-Based Prevention Programs With Paraprofessionals and Teachers

7 Helping Preschool and Kindergarten Teachers Foster Play in the Classroom 145
Karen Stagnitti

8 Primary Project: An Evidenced-Based Approach 163
Mary Anne Peabody, Deborah Johnson, and A. Dirk Hightower

9 Child–Teacher Relationship Training: Using the Power of the Child–Teacher Relationship as a School-Based Mental Health Intervention 181
Mary O. Morrison and Wendy Pretz Helker

10 Treating Disruptive Classroom Behaviors of Preschoolers through Teacher–Child Interaction Therapy 197
David McIntosh

Part V Individual and Group Play Therapy Approaches

11 LEGO®-Based Play Therapy for Autistic Spectrum Children 221
Daniel B. LeGoff, G. W. Krauss, and Sarah Allen Levin

12 Trauma-Focused Group Play Therapy in the Schools 237
Yih-Jiun Shen

13 Group Sandplay in Elementary Schools 257
Theresa Kestly

14 Play Therapy for Anger Management in the Schools 283
Barbara A. Fischetti

15 Group Play Interventions for Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder 307
Linda A. Reddy

Part VI Special Populations and Special Issues

16 Play Therapy for Children of Alcoholics 333
Laura Jacobus-Kantor and James G. Emshoff

17 Understanding and Generalizing Communication Patterns in Children with Selective Mutism 359
Laurie Zelinger

18 Play, Create, Express, Understand: Bereavement Groups in Schools 379
Ruthellen Griffin

19 Redrawing the Front Line: A Play Therapy Service for Meeting the Psychosocial Needs of Children and Families in School 407
Geraldine Thomas

20 The Nana’s Model: School-Based Play Therapy with Children Who Are Homeless or Severely Impoverished 435
Ana Maria Sutton

21 Better Playtimes: A School-Based Therapeutic Play Intervention for Staff and Children 467
Alison Woolf

Author Index 485

Subject Index 499

About the Author

ATHENA A. DREWES, PsyD, MA, RPT-S, is Director of Clinical Training and the APA-Accredited Internship at Astor Services for Children & Families, a multiservice nonprofit agency in New York. She is a Registered Play Therapist Supervisor, past director of the Association for Play Therapy, and is on the editorial board of the International Journal of Play Therapy. CHARLES E. SCHAEFER, PhD, RPT-S, is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. Dr. Schaefer is a renowned author, editor, and coeditor of over fifty play therapy books, as well as numerous journal articles and presentations on play therapy. He cofounded the Association for Play Therapy in 1982, which currently has over 5,500 members, and now serves as a Director Emeritus for the organization.