The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of traditional play program on the sociability of children with mental retardation and to discuss how traditional play could be more widely utilized in education for children with mental retardation....
The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of traditional play program on the sociability of children with mental retardation and to discuss how traditional play could be more widely utilized in education for children with mental retardation. The subjects in this study were five children from special class in K elementary school in Namweon, who included three boys and two girls. 10 types of selected traditional plays helpful for the sociability development of mentally retarded children were conducted in 36 sessions for 12 weeks, three times a week, 40 minutes each.
The findings of this study were as below:
First, the traditional plays exerted a positive influence on the personal life of the mentally retarded children. The posttest showed that Child 4 made the biggest change and Child 3 altered least. By item, they changed most in conjunction with Item 1 about usual greeting, and altered least in association with Item 3 about expressing one's idea or feeling properly in case of being questioned.
Second, the traditional plays had more positive impact on their group life than on personal one. Individually, Child 4 showed the greatest change in group life, and Child 3 underwent the least change. By item, their greatest change was related to Item 12 about being fond of playing with other children. They also underwent much change in relation to Item 13 about completing the given task in joint work and Item 14 about helping friends with cleaning classroom. Their least change was associated with Item 10 about using school facilities with care.
There are some restrictions in this study:
First, the instrument used in this study to measure sociability was based on child mental age.
Second, it's not recommendable to generalize the findings of this study as it's case study.
Some suggestions are made as fellows on the basis of result in this study.
First, traditional plays that fit the ability to mentally retarded children enrolled in special class in regular school should be modernized for wide use.
Second, as the effect of the traditional plays was investigated immediately after the experiment, follow-up researches are needed to determine their effect more accurately.