In play therapy with children, identifying play themes is key to understanding the meaning within sessions, and allows therapists to systematically track therapeutic change. This study investigated if play themes could be identified using a time limited, standardized assessment, for children aged 5–7 years. A descriptive, observational mixed methods, non-experimental study with 30 typically developing children was conducted, with participants assessed individually on one occasion using the Child-Initiated Pretend Play Assessment (ChIPPA). Play themes were able to be identified for 26 of the 30 participants. Of these 26 children, a range of primary and subthemes were observed. These findings indicate that a baseline measure of both play ability and play themes can be integrated to prescribe and align the model of play therapy with the needs of the child. Play themes were not identified for four participants which may be due to limited pretend play ability, indicating that deficits in play ability may need to be addressed in the first instance.

中文翻译：

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可以评估儿童的游戏主题以指导游戏治疗实践吗？

在儿童游戏治疗中，识别游戏主题是理解会话意义的关键，并允许治疗师系统地跟踪治疗变化。本研究调查是否可以使用时间有限的标准化评估来确定 5-7 岁儿童的游戏主题。对 30 名正常发育的儿童进行了一项描述性、观察性混合方法的非实验性研究，参与者有一次使用儿童发起的假装游戏评估 (ChIPPA) 进行了单独评估。能够为 30 名参与者中的 26 名确定游戏主题。在这 26 名儿童中，观察到了一系列主要和次主题。这些研究结果表明，可以整合游戏能力和游戏主题的基线测量，以根据儿童的需求制定和调整游戏治疗模型。四名参与者的游戏主题没有确定，这可能是由于假装游戏能力有限，这表明可能需要首先解决游戏能力的缺陷。