Effectiveness of child-centered play therapy training in Malaysia, The

Play therapy in Malaysia is still in the early stages of development. This study investigated the effectiveness of Child-Centered Play Therapy by conducting 3-day training sessions in different part of Malaysia for a total of 116 participants including mental health students and practitioners. Four research questions guided this study in exploring the differences on the three subscales: attitude, knowledge, and skills in play therapy. A repeated measure design was used for the pre-test and post-test instruments. Results indicated statistically significantly differences between pre- and post-tests on the all subscales. In comparing students and practitioners, result indicated no statistically significantly differences for all subscales on the pre- and post-tests. However, there was a statistically significantly difference between participants with and without previous play therapy experiences on the knowledge and skills subscales for the pre- and post-tests. In addition, a correlation design show there was statistical significance between the relationships among the subscales. For future research, a design incorporating random assignment and a control group as well as differencing lengths of training session are planned.