The Effectiveness of Sand Play Therapy on the Reduction of the Behavioral Disorder in Pre-School Children 5 To 7 Years

The present study was conducted in order to survey the effectiveness of the sand play-therapy, on the behavioral disorders of the children in Kermanshah city.
The methodology used in this study is a semi-empirical method with pre-test and post-test with a control group, and its statistical method is a Multi-variant covariance statistical analysis. The statistical population of this study was the 5-7 year-old children in Kermanshah city with behavioral disorders and the selection method was a random method. At first from the three districts of Kermanshah, 6 kindergartens (2 kindergartens from each of the districts) were selected randomly. Fifty four children with behavioral disorders were identified. Then, according to the inclusion and exclusion conditions for the research, 30 children (10 girls and 20 boys) were selected as the sample group, and were placed in experimental and control groups randomly, with each of these groups having 15 members. The Rather Form Teacher Behavioral Disorder Questionnaires (1967) were answered by the teachers in pre-test and post-test steps and also one month after the completion of the intervention. The children in the experimental groups attended the sand play therapy sessions weekly for 10 sessions (45 minutes for each of the sessions).
The results revealed that, sand play therapy has a significant influence on decreasing the aggressive/hyper activity, anxiety/depression, social conflicts and lack of concentration on the children on the experimental group in comparison to the children in the control group; but it has no significant effect on the conduct disorder. This result was constant for one month. According to the obtained results, it can be said that sand play therapy can have effects on decreasing the behavioral disorders of children, and in this study we have focused on the necessity of using sand play therapy in order to decrease the behavioral disorders in the children having them.