The purpose of this study is to develop an activity based sex education program applicable to the children with developmental delays and to examine the effectiveness of the program on the children's body awareness and gender identity.
The research qu...
The purpose of this study is to develop an activity based sex education program applicable to the children with developmental delays and to examine the effectiveness of the program on the children's body awareness and gender identity.
The research questions are as following. 1) Does the activity-based sex education program improve the self body awareness of the children with developmental delays, particularly the awareness of the location of body parts and their functions? 2) Does the activity-based sex education program improve the gender identity of the children?
The program used in this study is based on the sex education program for the students with mental retardation proposed by the Ministry of Education and Human Resources of Korea. Then, the author adapted instruction methods and contents with the programs for general early children, activity-based sex education program for middle and high school students with development delays, and many other programs related to sex education. Finally, validity of the program was tested and revised according to the test results.
The program consists of 12 sessions of which its contents related to the "body and sex development" parts of general section of sex education. Specific contents of this program are as following : value recognition of myself and my birth, the awareness of body parts' locations and their functions, identification of differences of men's and women's bodies, and recognition and coping methods against sexual violence situation. Intervention was implemented 30 minutes per session, three times a week for 4 weeks through group activities consisting of 3-4 children who were 4-5 years old attending a special preschool in Seoul. Furthermore, the researcher employed various teaching methods such as role play, activities with tools and painting cards, watching videos, listening to picture storybooks, etc.
For evaluation of the intervention, the author conducted pre and post tests. The instrument measuring body awareness was developed by the author referring to the precedent research and, that measuring gender identity was selected among the precedent instruments. They were revised through experts' face validity tests. Additionally, the author observed before, interim, and after-intervention and recorded the occurrences of negative sexual behaviors of the children.
The result of the intervention is as following.
First, after application of the activity-based sex education program, body awareness of the children with developmental delays improved significantly. Specifically, recognition of body location and it’s function improved significantly.
Second, after application of the activity-based sex education program, there was no significant difference in gender identity recognition.
In conclusion, it is verified that this activity-based sex education program is effective in improving body recognition of the children with developmental delays. However, for better gender identity recognition of the children with developmental delays, the author suggests that more appropriate modification on the contents of the program and session plan is required.