CONJOINT family therapy is generally a very inclusive form of treatment. It is significant, however, that young children rarely participate in it. Bell¹ justifies the exclusion of young children by emphasizing that those under 9 cannot adequately partake in verbal interchange—the mainstay of family treatment. Of the major conjoint therapists, only Satir ² makes a point of including children between the ages of 4 and 6—but she does not elaborate on their manner of interaction during the sessions.

Therapy involving the young child with his parent has been reported, however, in other circles. Axline,³ Moustakas,⁴ Fraiberg,⁵ Schwarz,⁶ and Furer⁷ all utilize the parent in the playroom primarily as an adjunct to their play therapy for the child, while Russo⁸ includes the parent in the playroom for purposes of behavior therapy.^*

This paper reports on a method of conjoint therapy which