Investigating Play Development: A Case Study on Jake's Behavior Issues

This case study explores the behavioral challenges of a child named Jake, focusing on his anxiety and frustration during play interactions. Observations over a week revealed instances of fighting, blaming, and panic attacks when faced with losing or social exclusion. The study identifies anxiety and tantrums as key areas needing support and proposes two methods: play therapy and direct guidance. Play therapy aims to understand and address Jake's emotional challenges through symbolic play, while direct guidance focuses on immediate, positive reinforcement and redirection. The report recommends creating structured play environments with clear rules to minimize disagreements and promote positive social interactions. The ultimate goal is to support Jake's emotional well-being and improve his relationships with his peers, utilizing resources available on Desklib.

Running head: PLAY DEVELOPMENT 1
Play Development
Name
Institution
Scenario 2:
After the incident on Jake’s first day in the centre, you decided to
conduct further research on Jake’s case to be able to understand
and assist him better. For the rest of the week, you recorded your
observations on Jake’s behaviour:
On the second day, Jake fought with other kids in the centre
twice during the day. Both fights started over a disagreement
while playing games. Jake does not like losing and often resorts to name calling and hitting when he

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cannot have his way. When you talked to him about his behaviour, he displayed severe signs of
anxiety and frustration and ended up isolating himself for the rest of the day.
On the third day, Jake had a fight with another kid in the centre over losing a group race because one
of his teammates did not follow the race instructions correctly. He blamed his teammate for losing the
game and used bad language to express his frustration.
On the fourth day, Jake pushed Lisa, a 5 year old girl who also goes to the centre, after she refused to
share her snacks with him. When Lisa started crying and telling Jake she would tell her mum what he
did, Jake started to panic and started crying himself.
On the fifth day, Jake had a fight again with some of the kids because they didn’t want to include him
in their games. Jake started throwing things at them and when you tried to calm him down, he started
having another severe panic attack.

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1.1 Collect and record the data presented in the case study using the questionnaire provided
below:
a. What behavior have you identified as a source of concern? Provide a brief
description.
While it is a rare case to identify a child with a behavioral disorder,
especially those that are under the age of 5 years, the sometimes can show
otherwise. There are various disturbing behaviors that Jake tend to have especially
when he interacts with his friends or when they are playing. Such behavior is the
aspect of anxiety. In essence, anxiety is a type of disorder where a person fails to
manage a particular stress. Additionally, Jake tends to have some sort of
frustrations especially when he lost a game while playing with his friends.
b. How frequent do you observe this behavior?
Five days.
c. How much does this behavior affect the child’s relationships? Describe the
intensity of the behavior.
Primarily, anxiety in children can cause isolation. For instance, when Jake
was told of his behavior, he isolated himself for the rest of the day. This shows that
behaviors such as anxiety and frustration/tantrum can deter one from relating with
others in the long run especially when they are being corrected regarding the same.

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1.2 Behaviors that require support:
a. Based on your observations, identify Jake’s behavior/s that may require additional
support.
-anxiety and tantrum
b. Research about the behavior identified and provide two possible methods to provide
support to Jake:
1. Direct guidance method
2. Play Therapy
1.3 Create a report offering your findings from your observation as additional support to your
supervisor:
Use the template provided below to write your report:
Title: Indicate topic/main fin
ings
Summary: The message of your report
Outline of your:
⦁ methods,
Coming up with a way of improving Jake’s behavior is no doubt a
challenging task. However, designing an appropriate behavioral

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support method can be of great help. Some methods that were
identified were the play therapy and the direct guidance method.
⦁ findings,
As per the observation, it is clear that Jake has behavioral issues that
tend to come up when playing with his peers. One clear behavior issue
that was found in Jake while interacting with his friends was the aspect
of anxiety. Notably, anxiety was recorded every time he was spoken to
regarding his misbehaviors particularly fighting with his peers at the
middle of playing session. Additionally, it was found out that Jake
showcased signs of frustrations or rather an autism. Nonetheless, all
these behaviors resulted while Jake was playing with his friends.
⦁ conclusions,
It is clear that the aspect behavioral control is an imperative thing when
dealing with children. Due to the negative behaviors that Jake
displayed, it was important to come up with some methods of
controlling as well as supporting a positive behavioral perspective for
Jake. The main methods those were applicable for this reason included
play therapy and direct guidance method.
⦁ implications,
The child not accepting the problem that was at hand thus keeping
himself in isolation.
⦁ recommendations

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Due to the fact that the some of the problems came as a result of
disagreement while playing the game, it is important to formulate a
game with rules for both Jake and his peers to follow thus avoiding
disagreements.
Introduction: Aim, Scope, And Limitations
Child behavior is no doubt an essential element towards a healthy
growth in the society. In this light, the purpose of this report is to
identify some ways and methods of supporting positive behavior such
as anxiety of children and in particular that of Jake. The paper will
achieve this by looking closely at strategies of improving play
development in children (Dean, 2018). The study will cover the
background of the topic, justifications and recommendations, methods
and findings, and the possible solutions in the conclusion part.
Limitations that arose from the research include its reliable as well as
clinically binding assessment in determining its overall prevalence
patterns of rather incidence to better understand the type of traits that
are solid predictors regarding more malignant courses of outcomes.
Such information is no doubt imperative in the overall clinical
perspective to give insight regarding an improved early recognition of
anxiety in children and thus help them to create a better social relation.
Additionally, Jake might refuse to admit the obvious problems.
Background
Childhood is considered as a core phase where there is a likelihood of

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the development of symptoms as well as syndromes of anxiety.
Notably, this often ranges from mild symptoms to rather full-blown
anxiety disorders (Cooper, Lockhart, & Walsh, 2018).
According to research, anxiety is considered the most frequent disorder
in children as well as adolescents and therefore regarded as the earliest
form of psychopathology (Dominiak & Mapson, 2017). The
cause of Jake’s anxiety might be varied but the fact that it was the first
day for him in school serves a great deal in realizing that he was in a
new surrounding where he needed to have good interaction skills with
his peers while playing. In this manner, there has to some way of
making sure that such behavior has been improved (Hillary, 2017).
Deciding on a behavioral guidance strategy has never been an easy task
whatsoever. However, it is imperative to design a method on how to
nurture a positive behavior in a child and, therefore, increasing their
social relationships with others whether at home or at their places of
learning (Harman & Harms, 2017). This is because parents, as
well as teachers, go through a lot of challenging moments in the
process of managing defiant or rather difficult behavior on the part of
children. The overall success of a particular behavior support plan
hugely depends on the advice that is often given by a specialist, parent
requests, changes in external policies, as well as guidance, and
unexpected responses from the child in this case Jake. In this case,
there is a need to monitor the plan that is designed to improve Jake’s

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behavior to ensure effectiveness while reviewing those areas that need
adjustment as well as consulting with the supervisors to come up with
new goals if necessary.
Body: Provides justification for a recommendation(s)
⦁ Presents methods and findings
It is clear that Jake has a behavioral problem and therefore require
support to improve and have a better relationship while playing with
other children in the care center (Lancy & Grove, 2017). To do
this, it is important to use both Direct guidance method as well as the
play therapy.
Play Therapy
In essence, play therapy is a type of behavioral management technique
or rather method where the therapist uses a particular child’s fantasies
as well as symbolic connotations or his or her own play as a means set
to understand and communicate with the child (Fairbrother,
Walker, & Phillips, 2018). The purpose of setting this type of
method is to reduce the behavioral a well as emotional challenges that
Jake faces when he plays with his peers (Luke, 2018). The less
obvious goals that go along with the use of play therapy include
improved verbal expression, improved impulse control, a rather
adaptive means of coping with anxiety as well as autism, and the ability
for self-observation.

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Description
During a play therapy, an educator is always set to meet with a
particular child alone for the most part of the session while arranging
times to meet with their parents on a separate occasion or even with the
child (Haf & Parkhill, 2017). The educator is set to maintain the
overall structure of the sessions to make sure that there is a consistency
to provide a feeling of surety, safety, and stability for both Jake and his
parents. During the initial stages of the session, there will be a need for
the parents as well as the educator to learn more details concerning
Jake and thus be in a position to help him manage his anxiety problem.
Direct Guidance Method
This type of strategy is used in correcting and supporting positive
behavioral occurrences of children just as they tend to occur.
Nonetheless, it is obvious that sometimes a behavior method that is
relevant to one particular child may not be effective for another one
(Boer, Berger, Chapman, & Gertsen, 2017). In this sense,
each child is considered unique, therefore, behavior methods have to be
crafted based on the specific circumstances that come along the
inappropriate behavior of a particular child (Cole & Parry, 2017).
There is various direct guidance method that can be used to support the
behavior of Jake and certainly make him more collaborative when it
comes to playing development. Some of the common direct guidance
methods that are relevant in reducing anxiety in Jake include offering

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children manageable choices, changing the situation, redirecting
children, logical consequences, and facilitating problem-solving
(Edwards & Bird, 2017).
To conduct this type of guidance technique in improving Jake’s
behaviour, the educator has to communicate with Jake in a respectful
way thus validating his feelings, provide Jake with a rather respectable
behaviour while explaining the need for a behavioural change, and help
Jake in learning an existing appropriate behaviour such as asking him
what he might do if it happened that he was another child (Goggin,
Yu, Fisher, & Li, 2018). An alternative behavior to this one may
be to walk away from the existing situation (Higgins, 2017).
Additionally, the educator might decide to clarify the game rule
whenever the children are involved in playing with others thus creating
a guideline that Jake and his peers might follow.
Recommendation
It is often recommended that parents explain to their children the way
they are expected to meet the educator or rather the therapist discussing
the particular problem that Jake is facing. In this regards, the therapist
is expected to teach the parents as well as the Jake on how to make
things happen.

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Conclusion: Due to the fact that Jake was experiencing a behavioral problem, it was
important to set out a plan to help him support a positive behavioral
outcome and certainly interact with his peers in a positive manner. The
technique that was to be used had to be friendly in that it would make
Jake free to show his feelings. Consequently, some of the main
methods that were adopted include the play therapy and the direct
guidance method.
Recommendations: One of the main suggestions it to make sure that games played at the
care center had a rule thus guiding the children whenever they are
playing thus avoiding disagreement among themselves.

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PROJECT – OBSERVING, GATHERING AND ANALYSING INFORMATION
Assessment Requirements:
To complete this project, you will need access to:
- A Regulated childcare center
- Three children of varying ages attending the childcare centre
- The children’s families for discussion
- Samples of children’s work
- Important: You are required to complete this project in a childcare setting as an educator
through vocational placement or direct employment.
Project Overview:
This project requires you to observe, document and analyse information regarding three children of
varying age in the centre. This project is divided into four parts:
1. Gathering and recording information
2. Analysing observations of the children’s behaviour
3. Writing reports
4. Contributing to program planning
Part 1: Gathering and recording information
Select three children of varying ages from the childcare centre and follow the steps below:
Step 1: Gather and record their information using the forms provided in the link below:
Sparkling Stars Childcare Templates