Free play time of children with learning disabilities in a noninclusive preschool setting: an analysis of play and nonplay behaviours

Abstract

Accessible summary• Some children with disabilities go to special preschools where adults help them play.• The adults who work in preschools sometimes ask occupational therapists for advice to help children play more.• Occupational therapists need to know how children play when not helped by adults.• This study videoed children playing both with lots of toys and without toys to see how they chose to play. SummaryWithin the Republic of Ireland, young children with learning disabilities may attend special preschools where they do not share any part of their day with typically developing children. Within these settings, preschool staff support children's play. Clinicians such as occupational therapists may be called upon to assist in progressing their play. To provide appropriate recommendations, occupational therapists must have a clear understanding of what play a child with learning disabilities engages in when not supported by adults. Occupational therapy literature described play as the most common occupation of children with a focus on process-driven activity. This may be at odds with a model of early intervention, where play is often product-driven, with the end goal in mind. The aim of this research was to establish what free play, if any, children with learning disabilities engage in when not supported by adults in an Irish preschool setting. Secondly, this study sought to describe what behaviours these children engage in when they were not playing. Finally, this study sought to establish inter-rater reliability of the Revised Know Preschool Play Scale with this small sample. Systematic observation was used to explore the play and nonplay behaviours of the children involved. A convenience sample was used to identify five children to participate in the study. Results indicated that children engaged in free play within the sensory motor stage of development, as assessed using the Revised Knox Preschool Play Scale. They alsoThe Official Journal of the British Institute of Learning Disabilities spent significant time in nonplay behaviours. The behaviour patterns of the children and time spent in different activities were explored.

Produção de conhecimento sobre terapia ocupacional e ocupações infantis: uma revisão de literatura

“…Play has been a widely discussed theme as a childhood occupation (Bartie et al, 2016;Graham et al, 2014;Fallon & MacCobb, 2013;Dionne & Martini, 2011). The results of this review indicate that play is the main occupation of children, as derived from the recognition of occupational therapists of the key role of play in childhood.…”

“…The study by Fallon & MacCobb (2013) sought to explore the choice of children with learning difficulties, in terms of their free play-related occupations, and to describe the behaviours of these children when they were not playing. The study also aimed to establish an inter-rater reliability using the Revised Knox Preschool Play Scale.…”

Knox Preschool Play Scale: a scoping review

“…Some studies (Lee, 2003;Jankovich et al, 2008;Fallon & MacCobb, 2013;Emblen, 2014;Sposito, 2018) have also pointed out the difficulty that evaluators have to understand what exactly is being evaluated in each item of the scale, leading to a variety of interpretations that negatively influence the inter-examiner reliability of the instrument. Fallon & MacCobb (2013) highlighted the importance of prior training of evaluators.…”

“…Some studies (Lee, 2003;Jankovich et al, 2008;Fallon & MacCobb, 2013;Emblen, 2014;Sposito, 2018) have also pointed out the difficulty that evaluators have to understand what exactly is being evaluated in each item of the scale, leading to a variety of interpretations that negatively influence the inter-examiner reliability of the instrument. Fallon & MacCobb (2013) highlighted the importance of prior training of evaluators. According to Jankovich et al (2008), the inter-examiner reliability of the scale is acceptable; however, two independent and trained evaluators score the performance of the same child with a mean difference of eight months in the final overall age score of the ELPKr.…”

Promoting social competence in young children with disabilities.

“…Children with disabilities tend to lack the needed skills to play with toys appropriately or to participate in play opportunities with peers. This skill-set deficit may affect the child's overall ability to develop friendships and to have positive social interactions with peers (Fallon & MacCobb, 2013).…”