What are therapeutic games?
Therapeutic games are designed to solve certain psychological problems through the structured scenarios of the game. These games are most commonly used in children, but versions can be employed by adults. Some therapeutic games are used in a formal clinical environment and are based on formal psychological research. Other varieties are available as consumer products and were generally not evaluated by the scientific community. Game therapy can be used to allow patients to work through problems or to support certain types of behavior. Children often have easier time to express and communicate through a game than through a more formal conversation. Some games use this fact and are designed to facilitate communication of feelings or experiences that could otherwise be very difficult for children to articulate and which children may not even consciously underline.
Formal playing therapy often includes elements of role playing. Psychologists can use careIne structured games and scenarios to evoke feelings about traumatic experiences such as abuse or family breakup. In many cases, these games allow several children to interact under observation, because children usually interact with each other more free than with adults, especially unknown adults.
In some cases, psychologists can use therapeutic games to teach skills or to alleviate some destructive patterns of behavior. Games have been developed and used in a clinical environment to reduce the impact of hyperactivity disorder with attention deficit (ADHD). This condition makes students concentrating on any particular task or object. Therapeutic games were used with some success to train children to better concentrate, through the progressive system of challenge and reward.
other therapeutic games were designed to allow children to cope with other specific psycholoGical needs and problems. Some games make it easier and acceptable for children to express anger that they could not otherwise process. Games can allow children to learn skills to solve stress or build self -confidence by imagining and then drawing on internal symbols of strength.
Parents can also choose to choose therapeutic games from the market for use with children. These games are less carefully explored than games used in a formal therapeutic environment, but can still provide benefits. Games of this kind are designed to solve a wide range of personal and behavioral problems. Some have to teach self -esteem, others should increase empathy or improve attention.