Effect of play therapy on behavioral problems of mal-adjusted pre-school children

Objective: The present research was conducted to study the effect of play therapy on reducing behavioral problems of mal-adjusted children (children with oppositional defiant disorder). Method: By using multistage cluster sampling, regions 6, 7, and 8 in Tehran were selected, and among kindergartens of these areas, 3 kindergartens under the support of welfare organization were randomly selected. From pre-school children of these 3 kindergartens, 40 children that could have behavioral disorder according to their teachers and parents complaints, were carefully tested, and among them, by the results obtained from child symptom inventory questionnaire (CSI-4), teacher's form, and a researcher-made self-control checklist, 16 children who showed severe symptoms of oppositional defiant disorder were selected, and they were randomly divided into control and experimental group. This research is quasi-experimental, and is done by the use of pre-test, post-test, and control group. Results: values of calculated F for oppositional defiant disorder in control and experimental group is meaningful after fixing the effect of pre-test (F(1,12)=74/94, P<0/001) so there is a meaningful difference between means of disobedience disorder post-test scores in experimental and control group by having the fixed effect of pre-test effect. Comparison of adjusted means of 2 groups shows that the mean of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in experimental group (M=14/09) is lower than control group (M=36/66). Therefore, applying play therapy in experimental group in comparison with control group, who did not receive these instructions, caused reduction in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in pre-school children. Conclusion: Results of this research show that the children's disobedience is reduced by benefiting from play therapy.