10 psychological games for children: how to use them, and what they are for

In psychology, working with adults is not the same as working with children. Children do not have the same capacity for concentration or attention, they can see the psychologist as a strange adult and, In addition to the fact that they do not come voluntarily, the consultation may seem like a place similar to the school, where they are deprived of leisure.

Since in order to establish a good therapeutic alliance with the patient, it is required that they pay attention and do their part, work with children requires applying tools that help the child pay attention and not be afraid to express himself or relate to the child psychologist.

Psychological games for children are all those strategies and dynamics that allow psychologists to interact with children, contributing to their development and offering help to manage their emotions. We will talk more about these techniques below.

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What are psychological games for children?

Child and educational psychologists use many methods and techniques to help them become closer to the little ones, and to contribute to their development.. Among these techniques, games cannot be absent since the playful element is a fundamental aspect to make therapy attractive, in addition to contributing to entertain it and prevent the child from thinking that the therapist's office is just another environment such as school or after-school where they are deprived of their time free.

Within play therapy, psychological games for children are any playful activity carried out in the context of therapy that allows unlocking emotions, build trust with the therapist, establish a safe space in the consultation as well as learn values ​​and strategies to cope with the day a day. These activities are especially useful for the little ones, not only because they are attractive but also because they are allows breaking certain communication barriers, since many boys and girls hardly know how to express what they feel and how they live.

This type of playful activities can be used in boys and girls aged between 4 and 11 years, allowing to detect and analyze their defenses, level of tolerance to frustration, strengths and difficulties, emotions, aggressive behaviors, fears, dependence and social skills. All of them aim to help the little one to express themselves, elaborate and resolve their conflicts emotional energy in efficient ways, in addition to channeling their energies and releasing them in a constructive.

Main benefits

Among the main benefits of psychological games for children we have:

1. Conflict resolution

Many children bring specific problems that they repeat and do not know how to solve. These games can teach conflict resolution skills through play, role-playing and symbolism.

2. Emotional management

Emotions are states that manifest themselves in people of all ages, but in childhood are experienced in an especially overwhelming way as their name, function and how are not known regulate them. Through psychological games we can label these emotions and teach them self-regulation mechanisms.

3. Social skills

Children do not come into the world knowing what to do to be able to relate appropriately with others. It is through the acquisition of norms and values ​​that they learn the most appropriate way to interact with other people, something that is not always learned at school or in the family. Psychological games for children help to acquire social skills in a controlled environment and then apply them in real life.

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4. Relaxation and release of tension

Many children have trouble manage your anxiety, aggressiveness or various tensions. Fortunately for them in the consultation, psychological games can be used to learn relaxation techniques and release from tensions, either through expending energy on something constructive or learning to channel and express these in an artistic way. tensions.

5. Higher self esteem

However small they are, Boys and girls can suffer self-esteem problems, especially if they do not feel understood or valued. The professional can apply games in therapy that help the child see his capabilities, identify his strengths and learn the positive points that define him.

6. Therapeutic alliance

For a treatment to be effective, it is necessary for the patient and the professional to establish a therapeutic alliance.

This alliance is somewhat complicated to establish in the little ones since they do not come of their own free will. Through psychological games, psychological therapy is “camouflaged” with playful activities, making the little one sees the psychologist as someone with whom he has a good time, wants to understand him and helps him feel best. Ultimately, psychological games help build trust between the therapist and the child.

Examples of psychological games for children

There are many psychological games for children. We could make a very extensive list with all of them and, also, the versions and varieties of oneself that psychologists have been applying from the moment they were conceptualized. Then we will see a few of them, included in different typologies and mentioning the main characteristics of each one.

1. Symbolic expression games

With symbolic expression games we refer to those in which the ability to project symbols and metaphors of both feelings and deep experiences of the patient. The boy can represent what he sees and feels in his closest environment through playful activities for him and very revealing for the psychologist.

1.1. The home corner

In "the home corner" a playhouse or corner of a room can be used to represent the child's own home. With the elements that are given to you, you will be asked to represent the roles and relationships that occur in your home, actions that we allow to know the problems related to their most important attachment figures, as well as possible problematic interactions in the home.

1.2. Dramatic role-play

Dramatic role-play is a psychological game, also used in adults, in which the patient represents him the same as how someone from your closest environment behaves or that person who is most upsetting you generating.

It is by imitating different characters in their daily lives that children communicate to us how they perceive these people, what do they think they think of them and what are the behaviors that stand out the most.

2. Body expression games

Children know their world through motor exploration, that is, by physically moving and interacting with their environment. Body experience is essential for their development since, before reflecting or learning through books or data seen in class, they do so using their own body as a tool for acquiring knowledge. The problem is that this tool can be damaged through mistreatment, abuse or inappropriate contact.

Since the body is the main means of learning and expression in childhood, any attack on the body that causes the child stop using it to know her world is a serious danger for both the acquisition of new learning for para Express oneself. It is for this reason that it is necessary to identify any type of body stiffness, be it caused by a traumatic event or simply by personality characteristics of the patient. Through psychomotor games we can improve the child in this area.

2.1. Controlled aggressiveness

Aggression is not synonymous with evil, but rather with the desire to release tension, shyness and insecurity. Many children who do not want to do any harm engage in aggressive behaviors because they do not know how to manage that discomfort since they are very young.

Fortunately for them, there are several games within the consultation that allow to release that energy in a controlled place. Whether through controlled fighting or simply by physically venting against an object, children can release their urge to attack.

"Safe" weapons can be used, such as foam swords with which to hit a brother or person with whom you have had any discussion, always with due protection and in consultation. The intention is not to hurt, but to discharge energy, have fun and relax.

2.2. Story theater

The stories are not comic strips devoid of moral. They all share values ​​that are useful both in childhood and in adulthood. Besides the classic tales, many psychologists have created open-ended stories that help children reflect on what is the best ending that can be given.

Among the most basic values ​​that can be taught through stories are the difference between good and evil, being generous, not trusting strangers, or preventing an unfamiliar adult from touching them in parts inappropriate.

In storytelling, the idea is to find stories that are meaningful and moralizing for children. The psychologist reads a story without reading the ending. Afterwards, an attempt is made to make him internalize how far the story has come and the story is reenacted, leaving the child to develop the ending freely.

All this not only serves to convey desired values, but also serves to detect any problem related to the way you see things. For example, we can intuit that if a child prefers to make the story end badly, it is that there is some kind of problem such as depression, low self-esteem or negativity.

3. Emotional expression games

You cannot talk about child therapy without mentioning games in which the little ones are helped to express their emotions.

3.1. Faces table

This game simply consists of show a table with faces showing different emotional expressions, such as being sad, angry, happy ... The child's task is to point out that face that corresponds to how he feels now.

This technique is especially useful for all children, especially since their emotional spectrum is very wide, but their way of expressing it is not so much, that is, it is difficult for them to say explicitly how they feel, but there is no doubt that it feel. Discovering a clear way to express your emotions can be a real relief for little ones.

You may also be asked to try to imitate the expression of each face, using a mirror to see yourself and learn what the name of each emotion is and what feelings it carries behind it.

This activity is quite recurrent in the cases of children with some type of Autism Spectrum Disorders, for whom it is very difficult to identify the emotions in others, although it is a skill that, not without limitations for this type of psychopathology, can be improved.

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4. Games of artistic and intellectual expression

Emotional expression and management are not only intended with these types of games, although in essence most of them contribute to this. In addition to regulating emotions, the development of artistic and intellectual skills can be promoted with games that, if applied, also They help us detect possible developmental problems or inability to imagine and be creative.

4.1. plastic arts

Among the favorite playful elements of the little ones are the plastic arts articles, which are very useful in the psychological therapy since many children communicate better through colors, shapes and drawings that represent plastically how they are feel.

Through art, the patient is given the option of express what otherwise does not know how to express. You can use paint, drawings, plasticine, clay, colored sand... All these elements can help the child express how she feels.

The creations that you make in the consultation must be kept by the psychologist who will expose them in each session. The objective of this is to comment on them, see to what extent they have changed from session to session since they reflect how they are does the child feel, what degree of control does she feel she has over her life and how she may be improving in therapy.

4.2. Tangram and other sets of pieces

The tangram and other puzzle pieces can be perfect for stimulating different fundamental learning skills such as spatial orientation, spatial structuring, visual-motor coordination, attention, visual perception, spatial logical reasoning, visual memory, figure perception and background...

The tangram is a game of very ancient Chinese origin and easy to acquire that, in its traditional version, consists of 7 pieces: a square, two large triangles, a medium triangle, two small triangles, and a trapezoid. These pieces can be combined in a multitude of ways and for this reason it is said that it promotes the skills that we have discussed.

Likewise, you can also resort to puzzles, puzzles, Lego-style sets of pieces... all of them promote creativity and ingenuity of the child that, in turn, can serve as a tool to facilitate the diagnosis of some problem of an intellectual or sensory. Not that they are diagnostic tools by themselves, but they help to detect if there are any problems and make a more in-depth observation.

5. Games to improve self-esteem and social skills

Next we will see a few games that serve so that the child knows how to assess which are the better characteristics that define it, in addition to learning those who value it and acquiring new skills social.

5.1. I am…

The game of "I am ..." is one of the best to increase the patient's self-esteem, since it helps him to be aware of the qualities that he possesses. The game consists of the child bringing a photo of himself that will be the center of attention during the session. The photo is put on a cardboard and around it we are putting different positive characteristics and strengths of it.

We will start with the most basic and neutral, such as hair color, eyes, skin tone... but progressively we will move on to qualities that do. have emotional value and are valued as socially valued traits, such as being kind, sharing toys with siblings, being good at studies...

5.2. Mirror

Very similar to the previous activity, only this time a full-length mirror is taken and the child is asked to stand in front of it. Her task is to say what he likes the most about himself, both physically and psychologically.

The psychologist will help the child to look at the different body parts of her and also actions that are related to such, such as writing with the hands, playing soccer with the legs, singing with the neck…

It will also be the task of the psychologist to note possible physical or psychological complexes that the child may have manifested having, in addition to detecting associated emotional problems.

5.3. Who value me

Finally, the activity of "those who value me" consists of the child bringing photos of her family, friends and important people in her social environment or, if this is not possible, drawing them.

Photos or drawings of all these people will be pasted on a cardboard and you will be asked to say what activities you do with them, for what is having a great time, who values ​​you, how you express it, what would you like to do with him or her, what is it that you don't like so much ...

The purpose of this activity is not only to detect how you think your close environment values ​​you, but also to detect problems in relationships with their attachment figures, lack of social skills of the child towards adults and other children and other issues interrelational.

Bibliographic references:

• De la Peña-Valbuena, S. (s.f.) Children's play in psychotherapy. psychologists-granvia. com Extracted from: https://www.psicologos-granvia.com/articulos/el-juego-infantil-en-psicoterapia
• Rull, Á. (2019). Play therapy in children: therapeutic tools for the little ones. We are psychologists. Taken from: https://www.somospsicologos.es/blog/terapia-de-juego-en-ninos-herramientas-terapeuticas-para-los-mas-pequenos/
• Landreth, G.L. (1991). Play Therapy. New York.