Alleviation of Children's Emotional and Behavioural Problems with Play-based Intervention

Mental health problems among children can be broadly classified into emotional and behavioural problems. The present study was conducted on a sample of 7 children with emotional and behavioural problems in the age range of 5-10 years. The participants who consented to participate were administered the Seguin Form Board Test (SFBT), while their parents were administered the Modified Kuppuswamy Socio-economic scale (2018) to ascertain their intellectual and socioeconomic status respectively. Devereux Scales of Mental Disorders (DSMD) and KINDLR were used to obtain baseline measures of the participants' current problems. The Play Therapy Observation Instrument (PTOI) was used to rate the play behaviour of the participants. Following this, the participants having behavioural and emotional problems were chosen through purposive sampling and were given 12 sessions of non­ directive play-based intervention. Along with it, their parents were given psycho-education. The obtained data were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Findings of the study indicated that emotional and behavioural problems in children declined and improvement in their quality of life was seen after play-based intervention supplemented by parental psycho-education. The process and outcome of therapy has been discussed in the light of theoretical and empirical perspectives.