Significance of the Game in Times of Sword and Conflict - Research Paper Example

Importance of Play in Times of War and Conflict Name: Institution Introduction War and conflicts are sometimes an inevitable occurrence which may have an negative impact on the society; war causes death and interference of the society’s existence. Exposing children to war leads to significantly changing the lives of children in any society around the world (Betancourt & Khan, 2009). Wars and conflicts affect the growth and development of a child mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally. In times of peace, where there is economic and political stability in a nation, a good environment to raise a child is formed. A child’s needs, either basic needs shelter, food, clothing and protection or social and needs such as emotional and spiritual care and love which cannot be physically or materially quantified, can be met with ease. However, war and conflicts make it hard to provide the necessities especially for families which are directly affected with hostilities (Machel, 2001). In most wars and conflicts, the most affected people in the society are the women and children. The effects of these conflicts linger on in subsequent generations even after the children have become adults since part of their development process was tampered with. Adults suffer from post traumatic stress, especially for women according research carried out, and they neglect their duties in raising the children with love and care both physically and emotionally (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, n.d.). In times of war and conflicts, children may have little or no knowledge why the war exists and how it came about. Some children find already existing conflict and tend to think it is the order of the day. Such children end up adopting a hostile lifestyle and this may be observed in their imaginative play activities and later in their social life (Holland, 2003). From both therapeutic and cognitive perspectives, children use play to work out an understanding of experience, including the violence to which they are exposed (Levin, 2003). It is the job of the adults and care givers to keep the children safe, reduce contact with violence and comfort even in the rough times. In the Geneva Convention statutes Article 14, 94 and 132, protection of children and women who are the primary care givers to the children in times of war has been emphasized. Education as a basic is mandatory for children in time of war or after the war is over (International Humanitarian Law - Fourth 1949 Geneva Convention, n.d.). To protect the children, the necessary thing to do is to shield them from the reality of the conflict until they are old enough to understand what the conflict is about. To do this, the child’s attention may be diverted from the on-going conflict. Research has documented the many ways in which exposure to war-related traumatic events contributes to subsequent mental health distress, and in some cases, longer-term psychopathology in children and adolescents (Betancourt & Khan, 2009). According to UNICEF (1996), it is estimated that child victims in the last decade since to publishing of the report have had 2 million children killed from war and its effects while 4 to 5 million children have been disabled. 12 million children were left homeless and more than 1 million were orphaned or separated from their parents. The number of psychologically traumatized children is about 10 million affecting generations of young people for the rest of their lives. Child’s needs during times of peace or war and conflict War and conflicts often bring about loss of security, unpredictability and the lack of structure in daily life (Stichick, 2001; Machel, 2001). Essential services, institutions and industries, such as schools, hospitals and businesses are often destroyed making food and health care scarce or unavailable (Betancourt & Khan, 2009). Parent and other adults may try to protect their children as much as possible to their ability. Children are often immobilized and cannot access playground or other social areas to develop themselves in all aspects. According to Maslow and Grager (1987), a child’s physical needs are the most important to a child. These include provision of food, shelter, clothing and a healthy environment to live in. Physical development occurs mostly in the early childhood stages where the gross and fine motor muscles are developed (Brotherson, 2006). With proper nutrition, the body develops these muscles faster with physical activities present to exercise the body. Social needs are important to a child’s development. They should be able to express themselves freely in the society they are in. Children need to have a sense of competence, achievement, meaningful participation and self definition. Wars and conflicts introduce fear, anger, confusion and isolation to children directly or indirectly exposed to violence. This way, children are not able freely indulge themselves in social settings. In such cases parents are expected to share with their children and know how they feel about the current situation (Prasad & Prasad, 2005). A strong attachment to adults is exhibited in the children and it should be reciprocated by affection and assurance of safety to the child. Expression can also be achieved through artwork, singing, imaginative play and any other activity that requires mental creativity. From research at the age of five years, children are able to think in complex ways, relating new information that they collect and process to things they knew previously (Dodge, Colker, & Heroman, 2002). Children under the age of around 3 to 11 may have behaviors such as excessive clinginess, bedwetting, thumb sucking or expressing fear of strangers, animals, darkness or “monsters. On the other hand, older children of age 12- 18 portray abandoning of responsibilities, anger misdirected to other people, low self-esteem and self-criticism. On all these categories of children, there is need to impose structure and guidance (Levin, 2003). Child’s development process and the outcome The child development process encompasses various aspects of the child’s being consisting of social/emotional, physical, cognitive, and language. There are several stages of the child’s growth that are categorized by age and have significant differences with regards to the characteristics displayed. Children at a given age may have very predictable characteristics (Dodge, Colker, & Heroman, 2002). However, during periods of war and conflict, children may develop different characteristics since they are exposed to different conditions According to Cook and Cook (2005), from a child’s birth to 2 years of age, a child is unaware of the surroundings and they know the world only in terms of their own sensory input e.g. touch and their physical or motor actions on it e.g., sucking and grasping. These children however experience anxiety and it can be exhibited by their frequently crying, hitting, having mood swings or nightmares in times of wars. These children need to be held and comforted to create a sense of security. At age 3-5, the child has gradually developed a consciousness of themselves and the world. They are able to relate to with the surrounding and the effects of war. They may be upset by what they see and hear and tend to confuse facts with fantasy and fear of danger (Betancourt & Khan 2009). From the age of 5-11, the child gains control over their relations with other people and are able to expand their relationships beyond their family members. The cognitive skill of the child grows and they attain concrete operational thought. This might be negative on the children in times of strife; children may be reluctant to talk about their fears or may not realize how the news is affecting them. At the age 12 and above, being the age when the child becomes an adolescent, they acquire knowledge appropriate to their social position. This can be observed from the self-consciousness and insecure nature of adolescent children. The child can develop abstract thoughts with concepts such as truth, justice, fairness, and morality (Cook & Cook, 2005). These abstract though are convoluted with the child’s perception of war. The child may become aggressive and create a wrong sense of justice. It is for this reason that child soldiers are easy to recruit. For example, since the late 1980s in Northern Uganda, an estimated 25,000 children and adolescents have been forcefully recruited into the Lord's Resistance Army (Klasen et al., 2010). Bronfenbrenner’s model of ecological development Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory defines five types of systems which contain roles, norms and rules that shape development namely Microsystems, Mesosystem, Exosystem, Macrosystem and Chronosystem (Bronfenbrenner, 1994). This ecological model is derived from two aspects: the proximal process and environmental context. Proximal process is how the human interacts with others and in the case of children it can relate to parent-child or child-child interaction. Environmental context refers the immediate or remote conditions in which the proximal processes are taking place (Bronfenbrenner, 1994). The Microsystem is the immediate environment that a person operates within. For the children, it consists of family, classroom, religious setting or peer group. The Mesosystem is created out of the interaction of two Microsystems for example the relations between home and school (Bronfenbrenner, 1994). The Exosystem is an environment in which the child in directly involved but us external to his experience e.g. the relationship between the child’s home and his parent’s work place. This may indirectly affected the child through their parents. The Macrosystem is the larger cultural context. This shapes the child in a socially accepted manner in the community they live in. It also affects the Microsystems, Mesosystems and the Exosystems characteristics (Bronfenbrenner, 1994). The Chronosystem shapes the environment in which the child lives in as a result of historical change. A child in this day and age is exposed to a different environment to a child being raised up twenty or thirty years ago (Elder, Modell, & Parke, 1993). Psychosocial conflicts In Erikson’s psychosocial theory, he observed that each stage of development introduced its own crises. He supposed that these crises of the ego presented challenges to one’s individual identity. Successful development of the personality or psychosocial development depends on meeting and overcoming these tasks or crises. Psychosocial programmes are aimed at psychological treatment of individuals or small groups, of war-affected children (Kalksma, 2007). Save the children (2004) describes three approaches with regard to programme content. Curative programmes that address diagnosed psychological effects, preventative programmes that seek to prevent further psychosocial deterioration and programmes that promote healthy psychosocial development. The curative approach is the first stage and is aimed at healing psychological trauma of children affected by war and conflict; it may however be used on the care givers who have also suffered traumatic experiences. The developmental programmes are a second stage to promote restoration of the child’s productivity in both a social and psychological manner (Kalksma, 2007). Role of Play: In Times of War and Conflicts Children exposed to violence tend to be rough while playing and are obsessed with war and gun play (Levin, 2003; Hyder, 2005). Their play often focuses on the most salient and graphic, confusing or scary, and aggressive aspects of violence (Levin, 2003).Physical or emotional abuse from the child’s care giver or any adult, like in times of war, disorients the child’s social behavior and they are not able to relate well with others. Children often witness gross violence during war and may end up losing people dear to them e.g. family (Hyder, 2005). This may be traumatizing to them and there is need for intervention in helping the children heal and restore their normal life. Healing the psychological injury or trauma caused by the war on children is certainly not an easy task. Over the recent years, a lot of research has been done on play therapy may be used as a toll for healing and restoration of psychologically traumatized children (Hyder, 2005). There are different types of play which include motor – physical, social, constructive, associative and on-looker play. For Children who have been through wars and conflict, the constructive, social and associative play may be useful. Constructive play involves creating things and allows children to explore objects whereas, social and associative play involves interacting with other children in play settings, and the child learns social rules such as give and take and cooperation (Anderson-McNamee, 2010). Play can be categorized into three main types namely games with rules, lucid play and epistemic play. Epistemic play allows children to learn and explore the environment they are in during active play; they get to interact with objects and conditions. Lucid play contrasts with the epistemic play since the children to not learn but get to use their imagination. In the last type, games with rules, children get to play in a structured way (Hyder, 2005). With these types of play, therapeutic play process has a number of stages. These stages may be useful in allowing traumatized children to communicate with the therapists. These stages are: sensory play where children can use material like clay to shape objects to their need, projective play where props and toys are used to tell stories and symbolic play where children negitatiate roles and stories (Hyder, 2005). Children often explore experiences and traumas through symbolic play (Cattanach 1994). Using the categories of play and stages involved, a therapist can use play as a means of achieving restoration to a child’s development process and healing the psychological trauma. For example, epistemic play can help a child recover their leaning process and at the same time communicate their feelings using sensory play where they shape objects according to their feelings. Play therapy is therefore an important for the child development process as well as helping in the healing and restoration of children who have suffered emotionally and psychologically. References Anderson-McNamee, J. K. (2010). The Importance of Play in Early Childhood Development. MSU Extension, 4. Retrieved March 27, 2013, from www.msuextension.org Betancourt, T. S., & Khan, K. T. (2009). The mental health of children affected by armed conflict: Protective processes and pathways to resilience. NCBI. Retrieved March 27, 2013, from www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2613765/ Bronfenbrenner, U. (1994). Ecological models of human development. International Encyclopedia of Education, 3, 37-43. Retrieved March 28, 2013, from http://www.psy.cmu.edu/~siegler/35bronfebrenner94. Brotherson, S. (2006). Understanding physical development in young children. Fargo, N.D.: NDSU Extension Service. Cattanach, A. (1994). Play therapy: where the sky meets the underworld. London: J. Kingsley. Cook, J., & Cook, G. (2005). Cognitive Development Piagetian and Sociocultural Views. Child Development: Principles and Perspective (pp. 5-2;5-37). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon publishers Dodge, D. T., Colker, L. J., & Heroman, C. (2002). The creative curriculum for preschool (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Teaching Strategies. Elder, G. H., Modell, J., & Parke, R. D. (1993). Children in time and place: developmental and historical insights. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Holland, P. (2003). We don't play with guns here war, weapon, and superhero play in the early years (pp. 38-39). Maidenhead, England: Open University Press. How Kids Develop. (2008). what is child development and what skills do children develop at different ages. Retrieved March 28, 2013, from www.howkidsdevelop.com/developSkills.html Hyder, T. (2005). Children and Development: The Importance of Play. War, conflict and play (pp. 5-23). Maidenhead: Open University Press. International Humanitarian Law - Fourth 1949 Geneva Convention, (n.d.). International Committee of the Red Cross. Retrieved March 26, 2013, from http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/INTRO/380?OpenDocument Klasen, F. Oettingen, G., Daniels, J., Post M. and Hoyer, C, and Adam H. (2010). Posttraumatic Resilience in Former Ugandan Child Soldiers. Child Development, 2010; 81 (4): 1096 Levin, D. E. (2003). Meeting Children’s Needs in Violent Times . Beyond Banning War and Superhero Play , 1, 1-5. Kalksma, L. B. (2007). The state of the art. Psychosocial interventions for children in war-affected areas, 5(1), 3-17. Retrieved April 2, 2013, from http://www.essex.ac.uk/armedcon/story_id/thestateofart.pdf Machel, G. (2001). Impact of Armed Conflict on Children. UNICEF. Retrieved March 26, 2013, from http://www.un.org/rights/impact.htm Maslow, A. H., & Frager, R. (1987). Motivation and personality (3rd ed.). New York: Harper and Row. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. (n.d.). WebMD. Retrieved March 26, 2013, from http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd Prasad, A. N., & Prasad, P. L. (2005). Children in Conflict Zones. MJAFI, 65, 166-169. Save the Children (2004). Children in Crisis: Good practices in evaluating psychosocial programming. Stichick T. The psychosocial impact of armed conflict on children: Rethinking traditional paradigms in research and intervention. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America. 2001;10(4):797–814. [PubMed] UNICEF. (1996). Children in war. UNICEF - UNICEF Home. Retrieved April 1, 2013, from http://www.unicef.org/sowc96/1cinwar.htm Read More

According to UNICEF (1996), it is estimated that child victims in the last decade since to publishing of the report have had 2 million children killed from war and its effects while 4 to 5 million children have been disabled. 12 million children were left homeless and more than 1 million were orphaned or separated from their parents. The number of psychologically traumatized children is about 10 million affecting generations of young people for the rest of their lives. Child’s needs during times of peace or war and conflict War and conflicts often bring about loss of security, unpredictability and the lack of structure in daily life (Stichick, 2001; Machel, 2001).

Essential services, institutions and industries, such as schools, hospitals and businesses are often destroyed making food and health care scarce or unavailable (Betancourt & Khan, 2009). Parent and other adults may try to protect their children as much as possible to their ability. Children are often immobilized and cannot access playground or other social areas to develop themselves in all aspects. According to Maslow and Grager (1987), a child’s physical needs are the most important to a child.

These include provision of food, shelter, clothing and a healthy environment to live in. Physical development occurs mostly in the early childhood stages where the gross and fine motor muscles are developed (Brotherson, 2006). With proper nutrition, the body develops these muscles faster with physical activities present to exercise the body. Social needs are important to a child’s development. They should be able to express themselves freely in the society they are in. Children need to have a sense of competence, achievement, meaningful participation and self definition.

Wars and conflicts introduce fear, anger, confusion and isolation to children directly or indirectly exposed to violence. This way, children are not able freely indulge themselves in social settings. In such cases parents are expected to share with their children and know how they feel about the current situation (Prasad & Prasad, 2005). A strong attachment to adults is exhibited in the children and it should be reciprocated by affection and assurance of safety to the child. Expression can also be achieved through artwork, singing, imaginative play and any other activity that requires mental creativity.

From research at the age of five years, children are able to think in complex ways, relating new information that they collect and process to things they knew previously (Dodge, Colker, & Heroman, 2002). Children under the age of around 3 to 11 may have behaviors such as excessive clinginess, bedwetting, thumb sucking or expressing fear of strangers, animals, darkness or “monsters. On the other hand, older children of age 12- 18 portray abandoning of responsibilities, anger misdirected to other people, low self-esteem and self-criticism.

On all these categories of children, there is need to impose structure and guidance (Levin, 2003). Child’s development process and the outcome The child development process encompasses various aspects of the child’s being consisting of social/emotional, physical, cognitive, and language. There are several stages of the child’s growth that are categorized by age and have significant differences with regards to the characteristics displayed. Children at a given age may have very predictable characteristics (Dodge, Colker, & Heroman, 2002).

However, during periods of war and conflict, children may develop different characteristics since they are exposed to different conditions According to Cook and Cook (2005), from a child’s birth to 2 years of age, a child is unaware of the surroundings and they know the world only in terms of their own sensory input e.g. touch and their physical or motor actions on it e.g., sucking and grasping. These children however experience anxiety and it can be exhibited by their frequently crying, hitting, having mood swings or nightmares in times of wars.

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