Evaluating clinical practice: using play-based techniques to elicit children's views of therapy

Children's services' drive towards accountability, and children's rights advocates' desire to truthfully represent children's views, are leading to more evaluation of child therapy services. The challenge is to find methods that accurately reflect children's views of their therapy. In this article we argue that play therapy skills have an important place in evaluating child therapy practice. We discuss four different directive play therapy techniques three of which have been piloted in the first author's practice to help children express their views of therapy at the end of their interventions. These are: 'The expert show', the miniature playroom technique and puppet and large doll evaluations. Explanations and examples are given from pilot research with 12 children. The issues and challenges inherent in play-based evaluations also are explored. We argue that expressive therapists are in a prime position to evaluate children's services and that children appear well able to express their views of therapy with these child-centred techniques.