Play Therapy-reaching the Child with Autism

This paper proposes that play therapy can be an appropriate intervention in working with children with autism in schools especially when working with children who have little in the way of social skills and poor communication. It proposes that play therapy may offer school counsellors opportunities that the more cognitive therapies do not. Through the use of case study research, the paper discusses and illustrates an intervention with a seven year old boy with autism across 12 sessions of sandplay in a school in Queensland, Australia. This paper draws our attention to the legitimate use of case study research in counselling. It also advocates for the use of sandplay, (an expressive therapy intervention) with a child who is autistic and who at first plays chaotically. This paper draws the counsellor’s attention to the developmental stages that will follow when the child feels secure enough to proceed. The lack of well researched longitudinal quantitative or mixed method research in play therapy is also noted.