The effectiveness of sand play therapy on the reduction of the aggression in preschool children

Subject Areas : روان درمانگری

Khodamorad Momeni ¹ , Somaye Kahrizi ²

1 - PhD Razi University
2 - MA in General Psychology

Received: 2015-05-19 Accepted : 2015-05-19 Published : 2014-12-22

Keywords: aggression, Children, sand
play therapy, preschool,

Abstract :

In order to investigate the effectiveness of sand play therapy on reducing the preschoolers’ aggression, a semi-experimental research design with pretest-posttest and a control group was used. Fifty-four preschool children with two standard deviations above the mean on the Aggression Questionnaire of the Children of Kindergartens (Vahedi, Fathi, Hoseini Nasab & Moqadam, 2008) were selected from preschools of Kermanshah city in the academic year of 2014. The sample were assigned randomly into either experimental and control group. The members of experimental group received 45-minute sand play therapy session individually for ten weeks. The results of the covariance analysis indicated that the sand play therapy significantly reduced children’s aggression. This change was maintained for 2 months. The findings suggest that the sand play therapy is effective in reducing the aggression symptoms of preschoolers.