The toy trucks move back and forth, colliding head-on over and over again — like the crashing of waves.

The first-grader looks on, transfixed, concentrating on the impact of each vehicle as he brings his hands together.

It was only then he started to talk about his parents’ divorce.

PJ Blanco, a doctoral student in the University of North Texas’ nationally ranked counseling program, is studying play therapy in the Denton school district.

The study is an eight-week-long evaluation on 43 first-grade students classified as being “at risk” or having low test scores, but no otherwise having no need for therapy, Blanco said. He is six weeks into the study, which will examine whether play therapy impacts academic achievement.

About half of the students are receiving 30 minutes of play therapy twice a week, while the other half fill the control group, Blanco said. The control group will receive the same play therapy sessions after the study concludes.

Play therapy for children is important, much like adult therapy, said Dr. Dee Ray, director of UNT’s Center for Play Therapy and a counseling professor who is supervising Blanco’s project.

For children younger than 13, the primary form of communication isn’t verbal, which adults prefer; it’s play.

And to help them, therapists must speak their language.

“If you ask, ‘What’s wrong?’ they don’t tell you,” Ray said.

Child-centered play therapists must trust that the children will be able to work through what they are experiencing if they are placed in a safe environment, she said.

The safe environment re­quires that the children have control over how they play and reinforces their behavior, without judgment.

“They need a trusting relationship they can count on,” Ray said. “They want someone who truly understands and accepts them — doesn’t want someone different so they can become who they want to be.”

And since each child interprets traumatic experiences differently, they need the freedom to express what they are feeling, Ray said.

“I’m going to miss out on how to help them unless I allow them to share their experience,” Ray said. “The most amazing thing about play therapy is that it works.”

Playrooms have been temporarily set up in four Denton  elementary schools — Borman, Lee, Hodge and Newton Rayzor.

The playrooms have a variety of toys suitable for the children’s age group, including a sandbox, shelves of toys such as animals, dolls and toy guns, art supplies and an inflatable “bop bag.”

Play therapy isn’t all fun and games.

The bop bag aids children as they learn to control and accept their anger so they can learn to cope on their own when they’re angry, Ray said.

Each toy in the playroom has emotions associated with it. Aggressive animals and toy guns can often signify that the child is feeling angry, Ray said, while animals like giraffes or lambs are seen as being nurturing.

Children will re-enact their lives, such as trying hard in school and failing, or children may re-enact certain kinds of abuse, Blanco said.

“It’s somber,” Blanco said. “It’s tough to see kids as they show some disturbing things.”

The quantitative study will compare test results from the two groups of first-graders, those who received eight weeks in play therapy and those who didn’t, he said.

The other seven therapists working with Blanco are working with about three first-graders apiece, and he said he hopes they have already started building relationships with the children.

To build trust with clients isn’t always easy and can take some time, which is not a luxury for this study, said Blanco.

“Trust is so vital, it can take weeks to break through that barrier,” Blanco said.

Breaking through that barrier is important, since children often internalize their anxiety or depression, which ultimately impacts their academic achieve­ment, he said.

After play therapy sessions, children are more focused and healthy, learning at the level they should be, Blanco said.

“The study doesn’t look for kids’ problems but why they are struggling academically and what emotional issues are keeping them from moving forward,” he said.

CANDACE CARLISLE can be reached at 940-566-6889. Her e-mail address is ccarlisle@dentonrc.com .