An Intervention for a Truant Child from a Systems Theory Perspective

─ Using Mother-child and Father-child Sand Play ─

Abstract

　　Sand play engenders little resistance and can be actively implemented by a therapist. Thus, sand play was introduced as a form of intervention from a systems theory perspective to address a child's non-attendance at school.

　　Specifically, mother-child (and father-child) sand play explicitly reveals gaps in communication between participants, and it is extremely useful as an intervention to address conflicts in interpersonal relationships.

　　Play was conducted in 3 stages: a free play stage with the child alone, a parent-child play stage, and then a play stage by the mother concerning the child and vice versa with the therapist intervening. The child had lacked autonomy, but talking with the father through this approach resulted in a change in the mother's response. The child broke out of a vicious cycle of attachment to the mother, the child regained autonomy, and the child began going to school again. However, both parents did not simultaneously participate in sand play, so the protocol was not able to be fully implemented.