Play assessment for group settings: A pilot study to construct an assessment tool

Abstract

The Play Assessment for Group Setting (PAGS) was constructed to measure children's play performance. The study was undertaken with 93 children aged from 2 to 8 years to examine whether the items of the PAGS construct a unidimensional scale that can be used to measure children's play ability. The internal scale validity and the person response validity of the PAGS were investigated by examining the goodness-of-fit of the play items and children's play performance to the many-faceted Rasch model for the PAGS. In total, 46 of the 51 play items demonstrated acceptable goodness-of-fit. Of the 93 children, 90.3% demonstrated acceptable goodness-of-fit on the scale of play items. Overall, the results support both the scale and person response validity for the PAGS, as well as providing preliminary evidence that the PAGS can be used for a more detailed evaluation of children's abilities in play performance within natural day-care contexts. Further research is needed to examine other aspects of the validity and reliability of the PAGS measures.

Inter-rater reliability of the Play Assessment for Group Settings

“…These features are not viewed as separate or hierarchical, but as in dynamic interaction with each other. These theoretical issues are discussed in more detail elsewhere (8,25). The item classification varies from easy to difficult.…”

“…Conversely, it has been argued that the play skills and behaviour of the child should always be observed and assessed in natural play situations (16). Participation in meaningful activity with someone else (17) allows the child's imagination and play ideas in social relations to become observable (8). Nowadays there exist methods of play assessment in a natural environment, such as the Test of Playfulness, which reflects a child's transactions in play content, and the Test of Environmental Supportiveness, which evaluates the impact of environmental aspects on play (6,10,18).…”

“…Many studies have demonstrated that the play ability of children with disabilities or learning impairments is significantly weaker than that of their typically developed peers (5)(6)(7)(8)(9). Non-typically developed children are also more sensitive to the impact of aspects of the environment (10).…”

Hand function in the play behavior of children with cerebral palsy

“…In this study, ludic attitude has increased in some children and the results were significant. During play, children express emotions, motivation, self-control, curiosity, pleasure, and skill, providing clues to their social partners, letting their imagination emerge and using their sense of humor (25,26). These results suggest that decrease in spasticity promotes the Was able to handle objects more easily and effectively during play, such as seizing a cube, a ball, hammering, making screwing and unscrewing movements, imitating weaving movement, using a pencil, and handling a spoon P14 Performed better, mainly in the upper left limb, and was able to perform actions more effectively and without the researcher's help.…”

The application of an occupational therapy nutrition education programme for children who are obese

“…Bundy (2000) proposed that intrinsic motivation and the capacity of abstracting from the reality can be achieved through play. To Lautamo et al (2005) and Lawlor (2003), the act of play consist is a social and cultural occupation that can be adapted for teaching good nutrition.…”