The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of group play therapy on social interactions of the mentally retarded children in the session and in the free play situation after the sessions with mentally retarded peers.
The subjects of this...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of group play therapy on social interactions of the mentally retarded children in the session and in the free play situation after the sessions with mentally retarded peers.
The subjects of this study were 4 children who satisfied following criterion:
1. one who were requested to social competence improvement program from 'T' welfare institute.
2. one who belonged to the criterion of the mild mental retardation through K-Binet intelligence scale.
3. one who were under the mean score on each factor of the Adjustment Behavior Scale.
4. one who had high frequency of isolation in observations of free play with mentally retarded peer.
This study was consisted of 10 session with 100 minutes of each session
The experimental design of this study was pre-post testing design. That is, for 4 subjects, the score of social interaction was measured before, during, and after the group play therapy session and in free play situation with mentally retarded peer. Additionally, subjects were checked with DTORF twice, during and after the program, in subcategories of communication and social interaction. Those scores obtained in these areas were compared.
The contents of the program was consist of 1) relaxation and attention concentration for adjustment and preparation for the session (25 minutes), 2) structured activity for promotion of social interaction (40 minutes), 3) free play for excercise of the learned skill (20minutes), 4) discussion for summary and arrangement (15 minutes).
The significant results were as follows:
1. In DTORF, there were improvements in verbal expression of the child himself and other's feeling, sharing the materials without directions, spontaneous involvement in parallel play, and involvement in presentation of other children.
2. In the frequency analysis of the social interactions in the free play in the session and after the program with mentally retarded peers, there showed improvements in trying to play with other children, the change in the responsive patterns from non-responsive to functional responsive, and the change to interactional play pattern with other children from the isolation play pattern.