Children’s capacity to mentalize through play and the Attachment Story Completion Task: Theoretical and clinical perspectives

Mentalization capacity is the ability to understand the mental states underlying one’s own and others’ behaviors. While this capacity develops during childhood through attachment relationships, some children present difficulties with regard to mentalizing. The notion of mentalization has proven to be useful in the understanding of children’s psychopathology. However, its assessment remains complex because of clinicians’ lack of easily applicable instruments for evaluating children’s mentalizing capacity. The ability of adults to mentalize is measured through speech analysis. However, language is not well developed in some children, particularly those who go to see child psychiatrists. The authors suggest that play and, more specifically, the Attachment Story Completion Task, could be a pertinent method for assessing children’s mentalization capacity. This task combines the child’s narrative and play in an emotionally charged attachment context. This article proposes a theoretical and clinical elaboration of the markers and difficulties of mentalization, which can be observed in children’s play.