Play Therapy in Children with Autism Diagnosis: An Investigation into the Trainers’ Opinions

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the situations related to the effect of play therapy as a therapeutic recreational activity onindividuals with autism. Accordingly, the opinions of 15 therapist trainers working at the Special Education and RehabilitationCenters in Şırnak province were received. The research is based on a "phenomenology" model, which is one of the qualitativeresearch patterns, and sampling was selected by using the "criterion sampling". In the research, a semi-structured interviewtechnique was used as a data collection method. A personal information form and a semi-structured interview form consistingof five questions were applied to determine the opinions of the trainers about the effect of play therapy. The Nvivo programwas used to evaluate the data obtained. The data were analyzed by the inductive analysis method. As a result of analyzing theresearch data, it was determined that the effect of play therapies for children with autism was in five categories such as“applied activities, effects, acquisitions, problems, and suggestions”. According to the research findings, it was observed inpractices that children experienced various tantrums, attention deficit and communication gap, had anxiety in a crowdedenvironment as well as were socially and psychologically affected and failed to adapt. Through the play therapy was a crucialelement in the process of integrating into life by providing children with autism many positive acquisitions such as improvingattention and concentration, ensuring cognitive, physical, emotional and multiple developments, acquiring communicationskills, reducing problematic behavior, increasing focus, and socializing through an increase in social interaction features such ascontributing to establish eye contact. In addition, it is very important to cooperate with families ensuring that they also activelyparticipate in the education process to continue education in a coordinated manner.