Dominoes as a Therapeutic Device

Abstract

Dominoes is a useful game for a therapist — whose child patient has temporarily become verbally unproductive. It can provide information about both personality dynamics and developmental status, including neurophysiological maturity. Played in two parts, the standard game and a projective approach in which the child constructs whatever he wishes with the dominoes and then tells a story about or associates to his construction, the game can provide the therapist with information about the child's attitudes toward success and failure, competition, authority, his sense of competence and the dominant themes in his life which come through in symbolic references. Problems in perceptual analysis, perceptual-motor integration, fine and gross motor coordination, and grasp of simple number concepts will also show up in the child's manipulation of the dominoes. Using dominoes as a projective technique can supplement clinical data about the individual child with valuable information on personality development.