Language behaviour and child psychotherapy

The dichotomy between non-verbal or play therapy for the younger and verbal psychotherapy for the older child is questionable in view of the fact that lexical representation begins in the second year of life. It is equally doubtful whether, in the absence of certain communications expressed in verbal symbols, any type of interaction between therapist and child may be called psychotherapy. Language, in varying forms of syntactical and semantic complexity, constitutes the matrix which connects and makes coherent all interactive processes in psychotherapy. This paper attempts to relate some notions of language development to current concepts of child psychotherapy. Linguistic growth is characterized by a fixed gross developmental schedule as well as a specific and universal sequence of acquisition. For the preschooler, still lacking a flexible grammer and syntax to express intricate relationships of perceived events, the value of "interpretations" is doubted; simple statements concerning expression of affect are seen as a rudimentary psychotherapeutic intervention. For the latency child the play situation, with its familiar concrete activity, fuels the child's linguistic competence. Not the play itself but the resulting language becomes the major element of psychotherapy. In late childhood distancing devices and role playing may correct the sociolinguistic asymmetry (adult-child) which inhibits verbal behaviour.