Dr. Aziz ZORLU started his words as follows: "Garry Landreth is one of the greatest living doyen names in play therapy. He says; birds fly, fish swim, adults talk, children play. With these words, I think Garry Landreth talked about the place and importance of play in a child's life. Because play is a tool that makes significant contributions to the physical, mental, emotional and language development of children." after these explanations, she reinforced her words by giving examples from the children she applied play therapy.
Talking about the importance of the play for the child, Dr. Aziz ZORLU said, "Play also contributes to the self-confidence of the child. In this sense, we can say that it contributes not only to the physical and cognitive development of the child but also to his emotional development. Play enables the child to get to know the world, to comprehend the life he/she lives in, and to distinguish between the real and the unreal. It also ensures that the child acquires the skills necessary for school life. At the same time, the play has an important effect on the child's overcoming emotions such as anxiety, fear, anger, guilt, and disappointment. Children can also get rid of the tensions brought about by daily life through play. Play also provides an opportunity to discharge the accumulated energy that is not accepted by the society, such as aggression. Play for the child is like water for fish. According to the information written in the sources I researched, a child spent more than 15,000 hours in the play until he was 6 years old. As a result of a study conducted in London, England, it was found that ¾ of the children spend less time in the open air than a prison inmate.
Urbanization and advances in technology can be counted among the biggest reasons for this situation. Unfortunately, many parents view children's play as a waste of time. As Stuart Brown said, if the purpose of something is more important than doing it, then it is probably not a play. What is imposed on the child from outside is not play. Play is the activities that the child initiates, continues, postpones and stops whenever he/she wants with natural factors. During play, the child gives the impression that he is comfortable and safe and is in a lower stress level than other activities." Then he showed the play therapy room that he had created.
Stating that clinicians started to use play to improve children, ZORLU said, "Clinicians have developed various play therapy approaches. In many play therapy theories, plays are used in the treatment of mental and behavioral problems in children of various ages. It has been assumed that play has a healing effect on the child. It has been determined that play therapy has a healing effect of 0.8 in children. In the scientific research literature, this rate is referred to as a strong effect. Filial therapies we worked with parents were found to have the strongest effect, with a healing effect rate of 1.12."
Finally, ZORLU conveyed information about why play therapy is used in children and said, "Children's vocabulary is weak, inadequate. Although children are incapable of expressing their own problems, adults can express their problems by telling. Therefore, children can express themselves better through play and toys. Actually, play is the child's language, and the toys are his/her words. Thus, with play therapy, the opportunity to understand the problems of children is provided. It is difficult to communicate with young children. The play provides assistance in communicating with young children. Play therapies have the longest history among psychological intervention methods, and their effect has been scientifically proven."
Dr. Aziz ZORLU ended his speech after answering the questions of the students who participated in the seminar. Speech and Language Therapy Department Chairman Assist. Prof. Dr. Emrah TÜNCER thanked Dr. Aziz ZORLU for this seminar.
