Dibs

Although adults most often express themselves, their conflicts, their needs, and their wishes through oral language, the child is thought to express himself or herself most clearly through play. Because children's language development lags behind their cognitive development, they communicate their awareness of what is happening in their world through their play. For this reason various approachesto play therapy, (analytic and client-centered), have become accepted methods for treating the child who is too young to benefit from the verbal interchanges of psychotherapy with older children. A child playing may appear to be engrossed in a physical or mental activity purely for enjoyment and with no objective. Play in the child’s life serves a more profound purpose. It is the medium for thechild’s self-expression. Emotionally significant experiences can be expressed more comfortably and safely through the symbolic representation the toys provide. The use of toys enables children to transfer anxieties, fears, fantasies, and guilt to objects rather than people. It is an opportunity for the child to 'play out' his/her feelings and problems. Play gives the child the means to cope withthe vicissitudes of life. By acting out through play a frightening or traumatic experience or situation symbolically, and perhaps changing or reversing the outcome in the play activity, children move toward an inner resolution, and then they are better able to cope with or adjust to problems. 
Play therapist differ in theoretical orientation and in terms of the specific procedures they employ,but there seems to be one basic assumption shared by all: that the child express important aspects of his or her personality through play and that insight into the nature of a child’s problems can be gained by observing play activities. The therapy typically involves the interaction of a child and a therapist in a playroom equipped with a variety of play materials. The specific play materials mayvary with the therapist and orientation, but often include puppets or dolls of varying colors, sizes, apparent ages and sex, drawing material, balls, and modeling clay. The most well known approaches to play therapy are psychodynamic and client-centered (Nondirective Play Therapy) models of psychopathology.
A psychoanalytic approach to play therapy is best represented in the wok of Anna Freud(1946). In her perspective, primary importance is to be placed on the symbolic meaning of the child’s play, which is thought to reflect the child’s unconscious conflicts and fantasies. Thus, free play is treated in much the same way as free association in adult analysis, and the unconscious conflicts suggested by the child’s play is interpreted directly to the child. The assumption in this approachis that the development of insight and the reexperiencing of early emotions and fantasies are both necessary in order to bring about personality change. In psychoanalytic child therapy, play is used as a means of establishing contact with the client, as a source of data, as a medium of observations, and sometimes, as something that promotes interpretive communication. Psychoanalytic therapy holdsthe view that play is a means by which the therapist and the child work toward resolution of the conflict and their common therapeutic goal. Psychoanalytic therapy involves the therapist in a role of participant and observer. The therapist allows the child to play and can even participate but later takes the role of shifting the play to more verbal interaction between them. By participating as aplay therapist the therapist takes on the responsibility of being able to understand, integrate and communicate the meaning of the child's play in order to increase the child's understanding of the conflict, thereby promoting an adaptive resolution. The toys are also an important role in the therapy for the child. The toys allow the child to speak metaphorically rather than literally which is good...