Sand therapy for children is a great way to get rid of negativity and aggression, to become more confident in yourself.
The founder of the method of sand therapy was K. G. Jung. It was thanks to his theory of "mental immunity" and the ability of consciousness to heal, transform and preserve his follower, Dora Kalf invented sand therapy.
The purpose of sand therapy is:
- Identify and characterize the personality of the child;
- to adjust to an understanding of oneself and one's self in the world and life activity;
- learn how to create a model of your fantasies on the sand and explain them;
- to analyze communicative difficulties (the child's ability to communicate and the ability to express his thoughts verbally);
- to save from fears and psychological traumas;
The relevance of sand therapy in modern society is very high. Man increasingly departs from nature, forgets his natural principle. It is the sand that can recall the primitive feelings and sensations. Children are doubly useful to play in the sandbox, rather than adults. There the kid can develop thinking, imagination and, importantly, small motor skills of the fingers.
Sand therapy in speech therapy
Doctors of speech therapists also often resort to the techniques of "playing in the sand". After all, the development of figurative thinking is very helpful in stating the correct coherent speech. Composing the composition on the sand, the child comes up with a narrative storyline and emotionally paints his story.
Sand therapy in kindergarten
In children's institutions only begin to experience the effect of sand therapy on the mental development of the child. Studies of sand therapy are planned to be introduced as mandatory. Especially since there is more space for group games in the yard of the garden or school.
Games in the sand at home
At home, you can create a playground. You will need:
- The box is 65 cm in width, 75 cm in length and 6-8 cm in height.
- The paint is blue.
- A bucket of water, a spray or a watering can.
- Small toys (figures of people, animals, cars, planes, helicopters, boats, flowers, trees, a designer, house figures, etc.).
The box for sand therapy should not have sharp and rough edges. The inner surface of the box is painted blue, it calms and causes associations with water and sky.
Sand for sand therapy should be shallow, preferably warm yellow shades. But you can take the dark sand to create accents in the game. In general, it is better that the child himself chooses the one that he likes more. A child can soak sand and sculpt shapes from it, you need to have a bucket of water for this. With the help of a lick, make wet stains on the surface of the sand. Toys for sand therapy should be no more than 8-10cm. in height. You can take both plastic and metal figures. But it will be better if you do it with the child.
Exercises and games for sand therapy are very exciting. There are so many opportunities for creative impulses that you can play all day.
But first you can try out the basic games:
1. "Guessing"
Bury a few toys in the sand and ask the child to recognize them without getting outside.
2. "Funny stories"
Take the letters of the alphabet and lay out the words on the sand, for a start not very complicated. Read them together with the baby. Then let the child close the words, and you will hide the letters in the sand, scattering them all over the sandbox. Let the child find all the letters and restore the words.
3 "In my city"
Let the child depict what he sees his city, street or room. You can also create a magical country and come up with a name for it. It is necessary to tell the story that occurs in the sandbox. In this case, you can give names to all the characters involved in the story.