Thesis
Utilizing Play to Help Adopted Children Form Healthy Attachments
Thousands of children are adopted both domestically and internationally every year. Many come from institutional or foster care and suffer from repeated trauma, abuse and neglect, which negatively affect their transition and attachment with their adoptive families (Van Der Kolk, 2005). To help, social workers often use a counseling technique called play therapy to encourage children incapable of verbalizing and expressing themselves to communicate and work through difficult subjects using objects and toys (Taheri, 2015). The play therapy space is a sensory-rich, hands-on environment, so design solutions focused on shifting play therapy into the virtual realm using advanced gaming technologies.
Most interventions are behavioral based and revolve around the caregiver and family (Chobhthaigh, 2019), but no published studies revolve around the use of virtual play, including therapeutic video games, to treat adopted children with trauma. Using the lens of attachment and a constructivist approach, this project harnessed experience design and design research to analyze, diagnose and map out factors that affect the experience and transition of adopted children into their adoptive families, as well as detail the challenges they face in engaging in true, child-like play. Interviews with play therapists indicated that while they had not employed the use of video games in their practice, they appreciated their ability to help children “express their own inner schemas of the world around them.” (Bowman, 2018). From there, researchers worked hand-in-hand with a play therapist to analyze the research and explore new and innovative ideas to harness the make-believe world.
Mythos: A Role-Play Video Game for Adopted Children
and Children with Trauma
Lost in a strange, desolate land, adopted children and children with trauma role-play as a stuffed bear where they use the tools of their choice to find their way home.
Similar to a digital version of Adventure Games or Clue Escape Room and armed with the play therapist’s toolbox, children explore their new world to locate magical objects and overcome obstacles, while picking up valuable skills along the way. Over the course of their journey, they will come to realize that home is more than what they think.
Target audience: Adopted children and children with trauma, ages 8-12
Ultimate learning/treatment goal: Termination of self-defeating acting out behaviors and acceptance of self as loved and loveable within a family.
Gameplay Summary
Children participate in the game as a stuffed bear. They can customize the bear’s name, age, color and choose a superpower. Age determines the difficulty level of the game, as well as the complexity of exercises. Superpowers are based on character traits, such as funny, strong, smart, kind or curious, and evolve over the course of the game.
The game uses the 12-step hero quest to mimic the process often used in recovery programs. The story begins with a tragedy, where their bear finds themselves far from home and lost in the desolate, fantasy-like land of Mythos. Each level represents a different chapter in the story.
As they participate with their bear on the trauma journey, children explore, locate and collect objects, use their imagination to solve puzzles and overcome obstacles, and pick up a variety of skills in order to advance the game.
Therapy Goals
- Mirrors experiences often faced by adopted children and children with trauma.
- Used as a tool by play therapists in concert with therapy.
- Flexible so it can accommodate varying treatment goals, based on the situation and child.
- Mimics the environment and flexibility of the playroom, with no timer or rules. In a safe space, children can choose how they progress through the game.
- Key focus on teaching children life skills and strategies, such as identifying their feelings or learning coping skills.
- Can played anywhere by anyone, regardless of age, background, physical/mental status, education, or skill.
Pillars
Role-play: Children participate in the game as a stuffed animal, allowing them to experience their emotions and make the trauma journey using an outside lens.
Player-directed: As a digital board game, with no timer or rules, children utilize the play therapist’s toolbox (constructive, sensory, functional, creative, dramatic, and social) to progress through the game. There is no right or wrong way to achieve the goal.
Action adventure: To advance the game, children locate and collect objects, solve puzzles, overcome obstacles and challenges, and pick up a variety of skills, such as identifying their feelings, learning coping skills, understanding loss, and others.
No experience required: Due to the neurodiversity of this group, the game should be able to be played by anyone, regardless of age, background, physical/mental status, education, or skill level.
Therapy relationship: Building and maintaining the therapist-child relationship is key. Therapists focus on creating a safe environment, building rapport, and allowing the child to dictate where and how sessions go.
Physical object: Children will be provided with a book and physical stuffed animal that emulates the stuffed bear in the game. The hope is that children will use it to embody and project their feelings, both positive and negative, to help them process their experiences and heal.