Science Fair Proposal

1. What is your topic?

· Child Play Therapy

2. What is the driving problem behind your experiment and the quote by an expert to support that problem? (Expert citation must be MLA format.)

· Although children need care many do not get treated.

The most recent U.S. Surgeon General’s report on mental health described the shortage of
appropriate services for children as a major health crisis and estimated that, although at least
1 in 10 of all children suffer from emotional and behavioral problems severe enough to impair
normal functioning, less than half receive any treatment (U.S. Public Health Service, 2000). The
report emphasized that “growing numbers of children are suffering needlessly” (p. 3) and it
stressed the importance of early intervention and family involvement. Thus, identifying proven
interventions that are responsive to the distinct needs of children and their families is critical,
not only to diminish unnecessary suffering but to prevent the development of more serious
impairment across the life span and the resulting cost to society.

Jones, Leslie. "The Efficacy of Play Therapy With Children: A Meta-Analytic Review of Treatment
Outcomes." American Psychological Association, 2005. Web. 24 Oct. 2012

http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~cfc/classes/CPSY_642/Readings/Class%209/The%20efficacy%20of%20play%20therapy%20with%20children.pdf

3. What is your hypothesis? (Must be in If-Then form.)

· If a child is receives a high score on the Brief SDQ Test then they are likely to be emotionally or behaviorally unstable.

4. Write a paragraph summary of how you will perform the experiment. Include the tools you plan on using.

·This experiment will be performed by following the Brief SDQ test instructions. I will ask a child's parent the questions either in person or through e-mail. once I receive the answers to the questions I will add up the scores and say weather or not the child is emotionally/ behaviorally unstable according to the Brief SDQ Test.

5. Select one of the following Project Categories for your experiment:

· Behavioral/Social Science

Blog 9: Working EQ and Possible Answers

Content: You just completed the presentation on the foundation. Please review your working EQ and respond to the following:

(1) What was the working EQ you used during your presentation?

• What is the best method to use during a child's first Play therapy session?

(2) Did you decide to revise your working EQ after your presentation? If so, write your revised EQ here.  If not simple write "I am not going to revise my EQ at this time".

• How to give a good Play Therapy session?

(3) What are possible answers to your current working EQ? 

• As of now my answer to my new EQ is to really observe the patient and understand the patient and the way he/she feels at the moment.

Blog 8: Rough Draft of Presentation 1

Rough Draft of Presentation 1

Independent Component 1 Plan Approval

CONTENT:

(1) Write a description of what you plan on doing for your independent study component.

• At the moment I am volunteering at the Samaritan counseling center. There I am able to have conversations with the therapists in the center and I am also able to go into the therapy rooms and see the setting where all kinds of sessions take place. For my independent study component I plan to visit a YMCA, an elementary school, or a day care like I was suggested to do in one of my interviews. By volunteering in these places I will be able to be around children a lot more and be able to interact with them. 

(2) Describe in detail how you think your plan will meet the 30 hours work requirement.

• My plan will meet the requirements because even though schools are only open during the week day cares and the YMCA are open everyday of the week making it very easy for me to be able to get my hours done. I will also make sure to calculate how many hours a week I need to have done in order to have all my hours done by the due date.

(3) How does your independent study component relate to your working EQ? 

• My working EQ at the moment is “What is the best environment to successfully treat a child?” My independent study component relates to my EQ because I will be able to see children interact with each other and be able to see how they react to different circumstances, for example if a child doesn’t share a certain toy how will each child react? I will also be able to learn and understand how to approach the problem in the correct manner. 

Second Interview Questions

Content:

The purpose of the second interview is justify your mentor as an expert in the field. Thus, you will be asking at least 5 questions about their background and/or the background of the organization or company where they work.

• What made you want to become a Family Therapist?
• What courses did you take to become a Family Therapist?
• How long have you been a Family Therapist?
• Is their a specific reason why you choose to work in the Samaritan Counseling Center?
• How has Samaritan helped different families and individuals?
• What are the measurable criteria you use to assess how well treatment is working? Can you give me a few examples?
• What kind of medical information do you need? Will a medical evaluation be needed before my child begins treatment?
• When treating a child do you work with their school and teachers? How often do you communicate with them?

Blog 4: Working EQ

The Pentagon: 
(1) Positive Statement: What positive thing happen as a result of what you have completed so far?

• One positive thing that has happened is that I have found my mentor shortly after changing my topic from photography to child play therapy. 

(2) EQ Content:  Pick a piece of research or your interview.  How has it helped you improve your understanding of your topic?

• My interview with Stacy Maggard was really helpful because she told me where else I can go to receive my hours, what other people I can  interview, and what books I can read in order to get more information on my topic 

(3) What has worked for you so far in the senior project?

• Things have been working out for me very well. I have found my mentor, different people to interview, and I am also able to complete my mentorship hours in different places. 

(4) What hasn't worked so far?  

• One thing that has not worked out for me is that I had to find someone to interview in a two day notice because the person I originally intended to interview cancelled on me last minute on the day that the interview was suppose to be on. 

(5) Finding Value:  Based on your experience so far,

•  What possible question or questions come to mind regarding what you would like to study this year (don't list questions about the instructions relating to the senior project)?
• What is the best way to approach a child?
• What play therapy games gives the best results?
• How big of a difference is their when a child's family is present during therapy (family therapy) than when they are alone in therapy?
•  What is your end goal this year with your senior project (don't say get a good grade or gain knowledge, put specific things you want to accomplish in your senior project this year) 
• I wish to find out wether my topic is really a job career I wish to peruse in my life. 
• Who would you like to talk to you next? Why?   
• I would like to talk to another child play therapist next and see what they can tell me about play therapy and see why they like it and why they chose to peruse this career choice. 

Problem Statement

Child Play Therapy 

1.  There are children who need therapy but do not receive it because parents do not realize the symptoms of a troubled child. This can be solved by raising awareness on children who have been traumatized or who have been effected by problems at home or their surroundings.

2. Even after a child has taken all of his or her play therapy sessions and is diagnosed to be healthy problems continue at home and/or their surroundings and cause the child to go back to square one. This can be solved by in cooperating the whole family into the child's play and working out the problems they have at home, this method of family therapy has been proven to have faster results.