Child-Centered Group Play Therapy with Children with Speech …

CHILD-CENTERED GROUP PLAY THERAPY WITH CHILDREN WITH SPEECH DIFFICULTIES

Suzan E. Danger, BS, MS

Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS August 2003

APPROVED: Garry Landreth, Major Professor Sue Bratton, Committee Member Janice Holden, Committee Member and Program

Coordinator Michael Altekruse, Chair of the Department of

Counseling, Development, and Higher Education M. Jean Keller, Dean of the College of Education C. Neal Tate, Dean of the Robert B. Toulouse School of Graduate Studies

Danger, Suzan. Child-Centered Group Play Therapy with Children with Speech Difficulties. Doctor of Philosophy (Counseling), August 2003, 97 pages, 26 tables, references, 63 titles.

The problem with which this investigation was concerned was that of determining the efficacy of child-centered group play therapy with pre-kindergarten and kindergarten children with speech difficulties as an intervention strategy for improving specific speech problems in the areas of articulation, receptive language, and expressive language. A second purpose was that of determining the efficacy of child-centered group play therapy in improving self-esteem, positive social interaction, and in decreasing anxiety and withdrawal behaviors among pre-kindergarten and kindergarten children with speech difficulties.

The experimental group consisted of 11 children who received 25 group play therapy sessions one time a week in addition to their directive speech therapy sessions. The comparison group consisted of 10 children who received only their directive speech therapy sessions. The Goldman Fristoe Test of Articulation, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test ? Revised, and the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals ? 3 were used to measure receptive and expressive language skills. The Burks' Behavior Rating Scale was used to measure symptoms of anxiety, withdrawal, poor self-esteem, and poor social skills as observed by parents and teachers.

Twelve hypotheses were tested using ANCOVA and Eta Squared. Child-centered group play therapy was shown to have a large practical significance in helping children improve their expressive language skills. Child-centered group play therapy was shown to have a medium practical significance in increasing children's receptive language skills. Small sample size may have contributed to the lack of statistical significance as calculated by the analysis of covariance. Child-centered group play therapy was shown to have a small yet positive impact upon

children's articulation skills and anxiety. Although not significant at the .05 level, these results indicate a slightly larger increase in articulation skills and a slightly larger decrease in symptoms of anxiety among those children who received group play therapy as compared to those who did not. Child-centered group play therapy was shown to have a mixed effect upon children's selfesteem, withdrawal behaviors, and positive social interactions.

This study supports the use of child-centered group play therapy as an effective intervention strategy for children with speech difficulties to improve expressive and receptive language skill development.

Copyright 2003 by

Suzan Danger

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Acknowledgements I would like to thank Dr. Garry Landreth for his knowledge and encouragement, Dr. Sue Bratton for her creativity, and Dr. Janice Holden for her writing expertise. Special thanks go to Kimberly Joiner, Yumi Ogawa, Jenny Findling, and Brandy Schumann for their support. I would also like to thank Brad Jeffries, speech pathologist and my research assistant, Sandra Hensley, school principal, and the Texas Association for Play Therapy for their generous research grant. Lastly, I would like to thank my family for their love and understanding.

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