Individual therapy for children

1. Play therapy: - Play therapy is very effective in solving children’s problems. Play therapy is based on the understanding that play is the child’s most natural way of expression. Because the use of sophisticated language is not available to children, they express and play out their feelings during a play therapy sessions. It is a space created for children through a structured environment to enable them to articulate their inner turmoil through media like play, art and story etc. Play therapy provides children an opportunity to get in touch with themselves, handle their feelings and of others around them. The therapist conveys to the child that she/he not only explores the room, the toys, and other play material but also constructs his own world with them.

2. Behavior Therapy

3. Rational Emotive Behavior therapy

The Psychological Testing Unit [PTU]

Complements the activities of the psychotherapy clinic by providing psychodiagnostic services. The clinical evaluations made here are used in deciding upon the use of psychopharmacological treatment and psychodynamic psychotherapy. At the PTU, a dynamic developmental life span perspective is regarded as critical in the evaluation of each individual and the tests are selected so as to address the full range of behavioural domains. Since behaviour depends on a complex interplay of perceptual, cognitive, emotional and environmental factors, the tests used here are multifactorial and culturally congruent. Hence, as far as possible, the unit uses only validated Indian adaptations of psychological tests. Since the professionals with this unit are also practicing psychotherapists, the reports generated here are detailed and clinically more useful.

The unit also conducts a Certificate Programmers in Psychological Testing and SLD.Testing Services at PTU

All the psychological tests conducted at PTU are preceded by an intensive clinical interview, and in case of children, supplemented by an observation session and a parental interview.

Intelligence Tests. These tests help to objectively assess and quantify the intellectual level of an individual, and give a global picture of intelligence as well as the achieved levels and potential in different domains of intelligence.

• Wechsler Adult Performance Intelligence Scale, Indian Adaptation [WAIS–PS.].

Age 15 to 45 years.

Administration time – 1 hour.

• Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, includes both verbal and performance scales. Age 6 to 15 years.

• Seguin Form Board [SFB] Based on the single factor theory of intelligence, measures speed and accuracy. Used in case of speech impairment and as a screening test to select the appropriate battery of IQ tests.

Age 3½ to 10 years, and up to adult level for the mentally handicapped.

• Stanford Binet Test Of Intelligence . Includes both verbal and performance tests.

Age 2 to 22 years and adults with mental handicap.

Psychiatric Scales. These scales assess different disorders and their severity, have a prognostic value and assist in chalking out better treatment plans.

1. Childhood Autism Rating Scale [CARS] To identify autism and its severity in children upto 10 years.

Age 1½-2 years onwards. Observation time – 1 hour. Administration time – 1–2 hours.

2. Bell’s Adjustment Inventory Marks out four major areas of adjustment, health, social, emotional and occupational.

3. Specific Learning Disability Tests [SLD] Qualitative and quantitative assessment of deficits in Reading, Writing, Spelling and Arithmetic that are out of proportion with intelligence and age appropriate expectations within and across subjects. [Can be exclusive or a mixture of areas]. Age 6 to 17 years, standards 1 to 12.

4. NIMHS Specific learning disability assessment battery.Bender Visuo-motor Gestalt Test (BGT)

5.Color Cancellation test

6. NIMHS Battery for Neuropsychological Assessment for Children: The battery is sensitive to the effects of brain damage and has been validated in terms of

Developmental Scales. The developmental tests help assess the developmental level and maturity in infants and very young children, and give a post hoc view of the developmental phases in older children. These scales, when used in conjunction with the intelligence tests, give an in-depth and more thorough understanding of the child’s developmental level in various areas.

•Vineland Social Maturity Scale, Indian adaptation [VSMS] Quantification of social maturity in terms of social age and social quotient. Age 0 to 15 years, and adults with mental handicap. Administration time 1 hour.

•Developmental assessment scale for Indian Infant (DASII)

Projective Tests

Projective techniques are sensitive to unconscious aspects of behavior, permit and encourage a wide variety of responses, are highly multi-dimensional and thereby reveal various psychical aspects of the personality. Since these tests are rooted in psychoanalytic psychology, our professionals are best equipped to provide clinical interpretations because of their thorough grounding in psychoanalysis.

• Children Apperception Test [CAT] A version of the TAT for use with children. Age 3 to 15 years. Administration time 1½-2 hours.

•Human Figure Drawing Test