Fun Therapeutic Activities for Foster Children

While any child can behave inappropriately, foster children may be more likely to display challenging behaviour depending on their background. Foster parents must be trained to see this type of behaviour as a form of communication to help children overcome their trauma. This link looks at common behaviours exhibited by children in foster care.

The fostering agency will derive a personal plan for each foster child, which may include therapy. The therapy programme will look different for every child. Some children may prefer sessions of cognitive behavioural therapy and psychotherapy, while others may be better suited to play based therapeutic activities, or a combination of different types of therapies.  You can find details of play therapists at this link to the British Association of Play Therapists (BAPT).

Below we take a closer look at play therapy. You will find descriptions of many of the popular play therapies that are available.

Playing with Objects

In group therapy, participants toss a ball to each other. When a child catches the ball, he/she needs to name something that produces happiness in them. Learning gratitude helps foster children realise that they do have things to be thankful for and that life is not all desolate.

Foster children suffering from stress may each be given a bottle of bubbles and told to run around blowing bubbles and trying to burst them. This activity is usually done in group therapy.

Medical play is used with children who have undergone a procedure or spent time in hospital. By being allowed to nurse a doll, stuffed teddy, or the therapist, children can act out their experiences. This gives therapists insight into their emotional and mental states.

A doll can be used to explore abuse in small children. They may even act out the abuse. This can also be useful in preparing for a court case against the abuser.

In toy telephone play, the child and therapist each have a toy telephone. This provides the child with a sense of distance and safety when responding to the therapist’s questions. If the child becomes uncomfortable with the ‘game’, the call can be ‘ended’ by either the child or the therapist.

Tearing pages out of a phone book, scrunching them up, and discarding them into a waste bin can help foster children to chuck away emotions such as anger.

Storytelling

The child in therapy is asked to make up and relate a story to the therapist. It is meant to be fictional. Then the child is asked to identify the morals and lesson of their story. Next, it is the therapist’s turn to retell the story. This time, the therapist displays acceptable ways of dealing with the conflict in the story.

Externalisation

In externalisation play, the therapist helps the child to develop and flesh out a fictional character, such as a monster that stands for the fears the child has. It may represent an abuser. The character can be used by the therapist to ask questions, such as, “Why does the monster want to hurt people?” The child will answer for the monster and start to dismantle the fear by externalising it.

Role-Play Methods

There are many role-play methods used by therapists dealing with foster children. In standard role-play, the therapist will get the child to act out an event that is causing anxiety, like starting a new school. This highlights the causes of trepidation and enables the therapist to deal with them with coping skills.

Dressing up in costume helps the foster child abstract from direct feelings and use creativity to express experiences. One form is where the child is crowned royalty and asked to decree the new laws of the land. This empowers self-expression and advocacy.

Mask play consists of making two masks from magazine paper. These masks represent the inner view or how the child sees himself/herself, and the outer view, or how the world views the child. Children should be allowed to create these masks over several sessions and attach extra features. They will be asked to explain the features of each of their masks. This activity reveals a lot about the perceptions the child has of themselves in relation to the world.

Superhero play involves the therapist helping children to come up with their key strength. A superhero name is chosen, and the child draws this figure. The child and therapist discuss how the superhero can use this ‘power’ to deal with everyday challenges.

Lastly, puppets are used extensively in child-based therapy. In family therapy, each person is given a different puppet and dialogue is used to explore the relationships between participants. The therapist facilitates the discussion by asking the participants strategic questions. Gaps in parenting skills can also be identified by the therapist and this knowledge can be useful in designing individual therapy sessions.

Play therapy can be used by trained therapists as part of a  therapeutic fostering approach, but it can dredge up some bad memories for foster children. Play therapists are trained to be alerted to an immediate source of discomfort and can dial back the activity and resume it later. The fostering agency will also provide the therapist with important information about the child’s background.

Art Play

The therapist asks the child to determine the emotions associated with different coloured crayons. Next, the child draws a picture of his/her past or a particular issue, using colour to represent feelings. The therapist will explore the events and emotions with the child.

Normal drawings can be used for specific problems without making a colour association. Finger painting can also be used. The picture becomes the basis of a conversation between the child and the therapist. Drawings done over several sessions can be compared to see how therapy is helping the child. For example, a child will gradually replace black or red with other colours or start including more positive experiences.

Clay play can be used a stress relief mechanism during an ordinary therapy session. Children express their inner thoughts and feelings by shaping the clay into items that have special meaning.

Play therapy can be really effective in helping foster children to deal with issues and learn the coping skills they need in the world.