Description

The purpose of the game is to gain access to useful social and emotional therapeutic information within the context of the child’s present level of functioning.

Potential problem areas are identified as well as areas of ego strength that may be implemented in future therapeutic sessions.

The board game may also serve a useful purpose in future relationship building that forms the basis of the therapeutic process. During the game sensory stimulation enables the therapist to evaluate processing procedures and problem solving abilities.

The board game should be seen as guidelines for the therapist to apply his/her own creativity and ingenuity to fit the unique circumstances of each child in a therapeutic situation. The board game is an avenue through which potentially useful information may be extracted in a non-threatening and relaxed situation.

By casting the dice the child embarks on an exploration through Wonder Wood and the therapist is given the opportunity to probe into the coping strategies (or lack thereof) in the child’s life when passing a school, a church, a house, a post box, a snake, a bridge, a hole in the ground and other dangerous obstacles that have to be negotiated.

Rewards are given and others withdrawn under certain conditions to determine how the child copes with disappointments. Opportunities exist where emotional cards and incomplete sentences are used to obtain additional information and the child is also afforded the opportunity to ask questions.

All the components can also be utilised separately for future therapeutic sessions.

Wonder Wood Assessment Game was conceptualised and developed by Narika Lategan. Narika Lategan is a Social Worker who spesialised in play therapy and has been actively involved in this capacity in her professional career since 1991