| Abstract: |
Play-based therapeutic interventions have gained significant recognition as developmentally appropriate approaches for addressing emotional, behavioral, and cognitive difficulties in children. The present study aims to empirically investigate the effectiveness of structured play therapy on the emotional regulation, behavioral adjustment, and cognitive functioning of children aged 4–12 years. Adopting a quasi-experimental pre-test post-test control group design, this study was conducted on a sample of 120 children drawn from selected schools and child guidance clinics in urban India. Standardized tools including the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-V) were employed for data collection. It was hypothesized that children receiving play-based therapeutic interventions would demonstrate statistically significant improvements in emotional stability, reduction in behavioral problems, and enhancement in cognitive performance compared to the control group. Results confirmed the hypothesis, revealing significant improvements across all three developmental domains in the experimental group (p |
