Features of sand therapy for preschool children: methods, activities and exercises in kindergarten and at home. Sand therapy for children - development and creativity Sand therapy for preschool children

Probably each of the adults once played in the sandbox in childhood - spending time building sandcastles, and did not think at all about what expresses their feelings, mood and attitude to the world around them in this way. sand therapy for children preschool age developed by psychologists - the direction of art therapy, which very well solves many problems in the development of children.

The use of sand in therapy first began in the 1920s.. The author of this method is the Jungian analyst Dora Kalff. Sand therapy is based on the symbolic content of the unconscious as a source of development and inner growth. Dora Kalff believed that sand paintings can tell a lot about a person's state of mind.

To work with psychologically disadvantaged children, sand therapy was first used by Margaret Lowenfeld, she called this technique "the technique of building the world". Currently, sand therapy is used in child psychoanalysis, art therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, Gestalt therapy and family relationship therapy.

Method features

Playing with sand can help your child develop spatial imagination., teach logical thinking, and in addition, develop fine motor skills. Working with sand, the child calms down, so it is indicated for children with hyperactivity.

Sand therapy programs contain everything - hand gymnastics, fantasy fulfillment, acting skills and much more that will positively influence the child's emotional background, develop sensitive skills and stimulate cognitive processes.

Sand therapy for preschool children can be used from early childhood and parents can learn earlier about what their baby cares about, what he is afraid of, and how he sees the world around him.

Expressing one's feelings in words is not always easy even for an adult, and a child who is burdened with psychological problems is not at all up to it. Sand therapy helps to express what is not enough words.

Sand therapy for preschool children is a game, a creative process, not a painting technique. Therefore, there can be no mistakes here, which means there will be no reason for frustration. Creating a new world is a fun and enjoyable process, compositions are easy and stress-free. This moment is very important for children who need emotional, speech therapy or any other psychological correction.

benefit p forest therapy for preschool children

Do not think that sand training can only carry psychological help a child who is emotionally or psychologically traumatized. There are many more opportunities for sand therapy:

• during classes, you can correlate the game and real life;
• create a sense of comfort;
• relieve muscle tension;
• improve eyesight;
• Expand words knowledge;
• learn letters;
• master the skills of writing and reading;
• develop hearing.

If we talk about the psychological orientation of sand therapy, we can note the following:

1. looking at yourself from the side- by the position of the hands in the sandbox, the psychotherapist can tell a lot about the patient;
2. situation modeling;
3. feeling that there are other ways out from problematic situations, except for critical ones.

Who needs sand therapy?

In principle, sand therapy is useful for everyone, but it is more relevant for children who have the following problems:

• neuroses;
• increased anxiety;
• ailments of a psychosomatic nature;
• excessive aggressiveness;
• stresses that are provoked by social or family conflicts;
• speech therapy disorders that develop against a background of nervous tension.

Sand therapy will be of great benefit to children who do not show their feelings, cannot explain their thoughts and emotions. Also, sand therapy will have a beneficial effect on children who have suffered psychological trauma. as a result of which they become closed or it is difficult for them to find the right solution.

And also sand therapy makes it possible:

• develop creatively;
• diagnose the underlying problem that worries the child;
• teach the child to find a way out of various situations.

Sand therapy contraindications

• the child has an attention deficit;
• epilepsy;
• schizophrenia;
• excessively high level of anxiety;
• the child has an obsessive-compulsive disorder;
• dust allergy;
• lung diseases;
• cuts on the hands;
• skin diseases.

What is required for sessions?

For sand therapy, it is not necessary to visit a psychotherapist's office. You can conduct sessions in a children's sandbox, on the beach, just in a pile of sand that was brought for construction, in the end you can fill the box with sand and put it in the apartment.

A few more words need to be said about the sand therapy box. It is advisable to paint the box blue, as it will have a calming effect on the child. The size of the box should be 70x50x8 - these are the optimal dimensions that it is advisable to adhere to. It is not necessary to fill the box with sand to the brim, half is enough.

For home sessions, sand can be brought from the beach or bought. In the first case, the sand will have to be sifted, washed and dried. For more thorough disinfection, sand can be kept in a preheated oven.

It is better to have two types of sand - soft river sand, which is sold in hardware stores, it can be of different colors; and coarse sand - sea - for modeling.

Also, sand therapy will require water, as well as what are symbols of the real world - figures of people and fairytale heroes, animals, furniture, houses, cars, plants, household utensils, natural materials. The list can be endless, in other words, you will need everything that the child will ask for during the game.

After everything is ready, parents should give the child complete creative freedom.- the child must choose all the items for the game on his own, there should not be any advice from adults, except for the moments when the child himself asks for help. This is the world of your child, and he is a full-fledged master in it - he buries whoever he wants, elevates what he wants, expresses his thoughts and feelings in a word, and parents or psychologists should just watch what is happening.

Psychologists have identified three stages in the development of a child's play with sand:

1. Chaos. On the playground, the figures are scattered without any order, people, plants, animals and other objects do not have specific places and their location is atypical. Such a phenomenon suggests that the child is worried about something, he is anxious and cannot collect his thoughts.
2. Struggle. The child clearly divides the entire characters of the game into good and bad, the predominance of certain figures is very significant - which are more bad or good? This speaks of the internal struggle of the child. You should not rush the child and push him to add goodies, what matters is what happens at the end of the game.
3. Exodus. final stage of therapy. The positive ending of the game indicates peace and tranquility in the soul of the child.

Individual games of the child under the control of an adult can be started from the age when the child stops putting everything in his mouth. Group lessons usually start at age 3.

Sand therapy class, games

For the development of general motor skills, it is recommended to draw and play with sand while standing. Thus, the child uses most of the muscles, the musculoskeletal system is strengthened, the correct posture is formed, and coordination of movements develops.

To focus on the development of fine motor skills, exercises are recommended that are aimed at training the fingers. Such exercises increase the efficiency of the cerebral cortex, have a positive effect on the speech centers, and manual skills are developed.

Motor skills exercises

A child and an adult on a flat surface of the sand leave prints of their hands - a palm and backside palms. At the same time, an adult talks about how he feels when he touches the sand. Then the child should talk about his feelings, perhaps he will be laconic, and then you can ask leading questions. What does the sand feel like? What is the difference in touching different parts of the palm?

Then you can feel the sand with your fingertips, sprinkle the sand on top of your palms, and ask the child if he likes it or not. Such an exercise teaches the child to listen to his feelings, explore the object with his hands and consciously evaluate tactile sensations.

To relieve emotional stress, it is necessary to play games in a calm environment, exercises should be aimed at developing skills in managing one's own muscle tone. Relaxation helps some children relieve tension, while others focus.

Relaxation exercises for children

Draw different patterns with your palms, knuckles, fists and talk with your child what they look like - animal tracks, snowflakes, branches. It is necessary to unobtrusively awaken the imagination of the child.

To remove aggression, it is important that the game ends with positive emotions, good triumphs over evil. In this case, it is possible to use fairy-tale characters through which the child will reveal his inner problems and experiences.

The free, various anti-stress cat therapy coloring pages presented in this article are a great way to calm our mind, put our thoughts in order and relax.

Exercise to remove the aggressive state

You can arrange a sand shower - at first let the rain be fine and fit on one palm, then you can scoop up the sand with two palms or a children's bucket. It is very important that the child feels his involvement in this rain, then he will calm down and will perceive further games less aggressively.

sand therapy books

There are a lot of useful and excellent books on this area of ​​therapy, but we recommend you: the book “Sand Therapy. Practical start "Elena Tararina. You can buy it at the Ozone store with fast delivery on house:

Sand therapy video

Conclusion

In order for a child to learn to express his thoughts and feelings, psychologists advise depicting them in the form of drawings. But young children draw badly, because of this they get upset, cry and become even more isolated. Sand therapy for preschool children: drawing on the sand and playing with sand free the child from the burden of experiences, and the quality of the drawing on the sand does not matter, so the child is protected from failure.

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For young children who do not yet know how to speak and express their emotions with the help of phrases, sand therapy has been developed by psychologists. The technique allows you to express the emotions and feelings of the child, bring him closer to communication with peers and develop fine motor skills. In addition, sand therapy perfectly develops imagination, imaginative thinking and allows you to reveal the creative potential of the baby.

The system of education in kindergartens is increasingly developing in the region intellectual development child. emotional sphere gradually flowed into the background, which had a negative impact on the spiritual and sensitive sphere of children. In order to help the all-round development of the personality, educators have increasingly begun to use sand therapy.

A relatively new technique reveals the baby's ability for self-expression and creative knowledge of the world. This is not just “digging in the sandbox”, but the use of various developmental devices for these purposes. Among them may be figurines, beads, cubes, miniature cars, pebbles, tree leaves, coins.

The sandbox is an excellent medium for establishing contact with the child. If the baby cannot yet express his feelings, excitement or joy with the help of words, then through sand paintings it will be easy for him to depict the desired state. In addition, children undergoing sand therapy develop tactile sensations and stimulate the nerve endings located at the fingertips.

Sand therapy video

Sand Therapy Program for Preschoolers

The sand therapy program is designed to influence a wide range of developmental problems in children:

• removal of muscular and emotional tension;
• preventive work to reduce impulsivity, excessive motor activity, aggression and anxiety;
• the formation of healthy conceit, the acquisition of self-confidence, the disclosure of personal potential;
• creative self-expression;
• development of fine motor skills and tactile sensations;
• removal of barriers to communication with peers;
• assistance after psychological trauma;
• the formation of morality, humane attitude towards others;
• taking responsibility for actions;
• adaptation to changing environmental conditions.

The sand therapy program always meets the following requirements:

• dynamic presentation of material: from simple techniques to complex;
• visual accessibility (children's psyche is more focused on figurative thinking than on verbal);
• individual approach by taking into account the personal qualities of the baby;
• principle of integration educational areas, which allows you to reflect through games the emotions received in the surrounding reality.

Sand Therapy Method

In sand therapy, many techniques and methods have been developed that allow the comprehensive development of children. The most effective are:

1. Hide and Seek. In order to build their own world, the child needs to bury the toy in the sand. After that, you need to find it and tell about why this particular figure was hidden. Develops through play logical thinking and unconscious fears are revealed.
2. Story. First, the child needs to place the character they like in the center of the sand, then add one figure to it. At the same time, it is necessary to make a fairy tale about actors. Through emotions and a historical prism, many qualities of a baby become visible to a psychologist.
3. Thematically oriented world. The child is offered a choice of one of the topics: “My kindergarten”, “My family”, “Me and my friends”. Depicted feelings with the help of active objects in the center of the sandbox are the key to deciphering the feelings and experiences of the baby.
4. Sand shower. With the help of hands, the child should form a small stream of rain, then even more grains of sand should fit in the palm of his hand. With the help of this technique, children reduce psychological tension, aggression, fears go away and an understanding of involvement in ongoing actions appears.
5. Patterns in the sand. With the help of fingers, hands, palms, the child must create figures on the surface. Then he must tell about these images: what he sees, feels. Exercise increases the social activity of the baby, makes him self-confident.

Tales in the sand sand therapy practice

The goal of sand story therapy is to:

• Development of balance in the emotional state of children.
• The acquisition of tactile sensitivity, acuity of sensations, perceptions, imagination.
• Increasing vocabulary.

It is necessary to build a sun and a cloud of cardboard. You will also need sticks for drawing, molds in the form of flowers and figurines of bunnies. No more than three children are allowed to participate in the lesson. The teacher shows the children the image of the sun and asks questions about who came to visit them today. Children answer that "the sun." Further, the teacher continues his speech in the form of a fairy tale developing in the storyline.

You can use any variations of events, the main thing is that all persons acting in the survey participate in the conversation. Then it is proposed to touch all the objects and speak out your feelings from contact with them. The tale continues in the direction that children feel tactilely and not verbally everything that happens around them. The teacher shows footprints in the sand and asks who could have left such animals? Children also try to make the same traces. Ends fabulous evening farewell to the characters.

Fairy tales in the sand develop all the necessary psychological sensations in the baby, immerse him in a creative channel and set him up to continue the dialogue. As a result, a coherent and comprehensive developed personality child.

Conclusion

Sand therapy is recommended for all children without exception. But this technique will be especially useful for those children who have psychological complexes of communication, inability to express feelings and problems in the family. Psychologists, together with educators, prepare individual sand training programs that allow children to develop their personal potential to the maximum.

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The silky warm sand is attractive to people of all ages. The feeling of fine loose texture relaxes, liberates, soothes. Therefore, sand fuss is so attractive for preschool children. But not always the price of a vacation allows you to take the baby to the sea several times a year. Based on this, psychologists have developed a program of classes "Sand Therapy".

Program

The Sand Therapy program has been known since 1920 thanks to psychotherapists A. Freud, E. Erickson, and others. In the 1930s, Sand Therapy was formed, which began to be successfully used to solve psychological problems in children and adults.

"Sand therapy" relieves emotional stress, is a means of psychological diagnostics, helps to restore spiritual harmony. In parallel, figurative thinking, imagination, memory, fine motor skills develop. For preschool children, these activities allow you to express fears and concerns without overexertion. Toddlers seem to model anxieties and destroy them, freeing themselves from internal tension.

The training program is aimed at overcoming problems in communication, at the formation of responsibility for the decision and its consequences. "Sand therapy" provides an opportunity for preschool children to get rid of the effects of stress and psychological trauma, increases self-esteem. The price of such classes is the peace of mind and harmony of your child.

Situations in which children simply need classes

• psychosomatic diseases in children;
• increased anxiety, aggressiveness;
• isolation of the child;
• neurosis;
• stress as a result of complex family or social conflicts;
• for children with special needs.

Contraindications to exercise

• with epilepsy;
• with pulmonary and skin diseases;
• with an allergic reaction to dust;
• with manifestations of hyperactivity.

Stages of therapy

Classes "Sand therapy" involve a gradual transition from one stage to the next in the individual rhythm of the child.

Chaos

This is the initial stage for children, when they throw a lot of toys into the sand without grouping them by size, color, animal, object, etc. This indicates deep inner fears and feelings, confusion.

Struggle

The child begins to divide the figures into opposing groups. Good and evil, bad and good figures appear. Do not rush the baby, offering him a good hero. Let all fears, resentments and doubts spill out. This stage will end with the onset of peace among the warring parties.

Exodus

This is the final stage of peace, balance and harmony. All figures in pairs or small groups. Bright elements appear. Movements become calm and smooth.

Games

Sand therapy classes are children's games that give children the opportunity to express themselves.

"Acquaintance"

Invite the baby to touch the sand, stroke it, dip his hands in the sand. Draw waves and snakes. Make drawings with your palms, fists, edge of the hand, finger.

Comment on feelings, ask leading questions. Suggest bright, joyful and kind associations.

"Rain"

Let the baby pick up sand in a fist and gradually pour it into an open palm or into your hand. This game relaxes, regulates muscle tone.

"Guess what"

The child must recognize by touch the figures buried in the sand. This game develops fine motor skills of hands and imagination, forms self-confidence.

"A funny story"

Lay out the figures in the sand in a certain order, show the child, let them remember. Then bury the toys in the sand randomly. The kid must find the figures in the sand and lay them out in their original order.

"My city"

Let the kid build his favorite city, arrange his favorite figures in it, arrange a place for himself.

Lesson notes

You can study the ready-made notes of the Sand Therapy classes, but it is best to build the logic of the classes yourself, taking into account the individual characteristics of each child or group of children. Your notes will include all the same basic games, but in an individual sequence, at your own pace. The proposed notes will help you find suitable poetic material, nursery rhymes, jokes that will create an atmosphere of goodwill in the classroom.

Pay attention to the inventory that ready-made notes offer. Its price is absolutely affordable. You will need:

• live (kinetic) sand;
• sand for a home sandbox or colored quartz sand (the price is indicated on the manufacturers' websites);
• sand container (sandbox, box, large box, etc.);
• figurines of animals and fish, plants and men, fairy tale characters and cartoon characters;
• tapes;
• shreds;
• colored stones;
• cars;
• locks;
• towers;
• bridges, etc.

Prices

For group classes, you need to purchase sandboxes (average price - 3000 rubles) and sets for "Sand Therapy".

SAND ART THERAPY as one of the methods of development of preschool children

What do you need to play sand?

And, in fact, so little is needed:

Love, desire, kindness,

So that faith in childhood is not lost.

The simplest drawer from the table -

Paint it blue

A handful of golden sand

There will join a marvelous fairy tale.

Small toys set

Let's get into the game...

Like God

We will create our own World of Wonders,

Passing the Knowledge Road.

Perhaps each of us has our own positive memories from childhood associated with playing in the sand - sea, river or those that fall asleep in sandboxes near the house. However, the sand is not so simple. Elementary, it would seem, games can be very useful for mental health and development of children. Especially if these games are sand therapy.

Have you noticed that sand for babies has a certain magic power? At a certain age, they begin to beckon to him: children want to touch the sand, dig into it with a stick, play with toys, dig a hole.

First of all , sand therapy for children is a great opportunity for self-expression, the development of creative inclinations in a child, as well as a simple and effective way learn to express their feelings, emotions, experiences.

Sand therapy classes under my guidance give answers to many questions of parents regarding the inner emotional world of their child, allows you to discover and see the true causes of conflicts, fears, and in the future to make a correction!

The paintings created in the sand by the hands of children are a reflection of the unconscious. They are like dreams, but you can also feel them. With their help, we bring out experiences, internal problems, tormenting conflicts. I help children to consider them and realize what thoughts disturb them.

Playing in the sand is an excellent medium for establishing contact with the child.

Classes in kindergarten with sand are ideal for playing on cold winter days.

To organize sand therapy you will need:

Sand box (sandbox), size in centimeters: 50x70x8. This size of the sandbox corresponds to the volume of the field of visual perception.

Sand (regular, but sifted, clean)

Water

A collection of miniature figurines, multi-colored pebbles, kinder - cheesecakes.

In the classroom, children love to travel to a fairy-tale land with the Sandman, the guardian of the magical sandbox. Each time, sitting around the sandbox, the guys listen to the story of the Sandman about a new interesting game.

The sand therapy session begins with the fact that I give the task to create a picture of his mood, and the child chooses the most attractive toys for him.

It is important that they are varied and allow the child to use different aspects of life in their games. After that, these very figures are randomly placed on one of the sand trays. You can place them as you like: in one row, in a circle, at different ends of the tray, and so on. Figures can connect drawn "paths" (connections between objects), "footprints" made by fingers, or they can be connected by nothing at all - everything the child wants to do.

In my work I also use multi-colored pebbles. Children lay out of them goldfish fulfilling wishes. They create a composition of flowers, characterizing each flower, build their dream house, explaining who lives in it, and what qualities these characters have

The therapeutic effect is achieved already at the stage of arranging toys, pebbles and figures by children. When the picture is completed, I can interpret what is bothering the child at this time, and also help him find a way out of a difficult situation during the game.

Calm music plays in the classroom, or complete silence can reign, depending on the mood of the group and the age of the children.

Being engaged in games on the sand, the child becomes interested, he tries to do it right, beautifully, accurately and, what is important, quickly.

Children often cannot articulate or name what is happening to them. Building various plots, the child can play all sorts of difficulties in his life. For example, difficulties in communicating with children, indecision or their fears.

sand play - This is a kind of self-therapy of a child with the help of a psychologist. A child is the master in a box of sand and, experiencing this feeling, he becomes stronger internally, because he can change his pictures, plots, attitudes and moods.

There are wars in the games on the sand, the struggle between good and evil, but the child always knows that good will win! And this experience is very important for his future life.

In sand therapy, children gain inner freedom and confidence that no one will judge them and accept them as they are. First on the sand, then in real life!

The purpose of this therapy - do not change and remake the child, do not teach him some special behavioral skills, but give him the opportunity to be himself.

What are the benefits of playing with sand?

Develop perception, thinking, memory, attention, speech, self-control and self-regulation skills, creative thinking, imagination and fantasy;

Form the child's ideas about the world around;

Develop fine motor skills, eye

Soothe and relax, relieving stress;

Build a sense of success and self-confidence (that's how I can!)

Help to know the outer and inner world;

Along with the high efficiency of the method, sand therapy hascontraindications. Not recommended in cases where:

The child's anxiety level is very high;

There are allergies and asthma to dust and small particles;

There are skin diseases and cuts on the hands.

In my work, I use a series of T.D. Zinkevich-Evstigneeva "Games in fairy tale therapy":

1 .“Sensitive hands”

Hot-cold, soft-hard, dry-wet.

2. "Our Handprints" . Kids really like to make footprints, palm prints in the sand, to depict animal footprints with their fingers. It is also very interesting and pleasant to bury your hands and feet in the sand.

3. Game"Secret" “What is hidden in the sand? Any toys are hidden in the sand, while the cache is marked, the child's task is to dig out the "secret" and then make a similar one.

4. Drawings in the sand. With a stick, you can draw letters, numbers, geometric figures and whole pictures.

Experience with children has shown that the use of sand therapy gives positive results:

Children feel more successful;

The classes are fun, there is no boredom and monotony;

In kindergarten, the child is easier to adapt to the team;

Fear and tension disappear.

Getting into a fairy-tale sand country, the guys play in the Magic Sandbox and feel like real Wizards!