The Little Giant

Abstract

This chapter is a case study of a Japanese boy who was born premature and needed to inject hormones for growth. The boy was rejecting the everyday injections which caused damage to the family relationship, especially the mother and child. As a hospital play specialist, the author started individual play sessions to help the child. First, the aim of these sessions was to prepare the child so that he could self-inject. But as the session went on, it was clear that the boy had been traumatized at a very early age and many misunderstandings were the cause of the rejection. Play contributed the main role for the boy to understand what happened while his stay in hospital and to present his true feelings towards his treatment and how he looked about himself. Readers will understand that play has helped him to be resilient.