Is Individual Child Play Therapy Effective?

This article reports a systematic review of the effectiveness of individual child play therapy with children aged 4-12 on several different presenting concerns. From over 5,000 citations, 180 studies were reviewed in detail and 17 met the inclusion criteria. A wide range of results on different concerns were revealed, with effect sizes ranging fromd= -0.04 tog= 3.63, though most ranged from .35 to .80. Across most concerns, play therapy was affirmed as an empirically supported therapy.