A Survey of Use and Needs of Assistive Device for Play in Children with Motor Developmental Delay

• Main Authors: Yi-Chun Lin, 林怡君
• Other Authors: Shwn-Jen Lee
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2006
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/59238494243190044596

碩士 === 國立陽明大學 === 復健科技輔具研究所 === 94 === Background: Play is the primary occupation of young children which is an intrinsic motivated, self-controlled and pleasant activity. Physical, cognitive, communicated, emotional and social skills in young children are developed from play experience. However, the developmental benefits from play are limited in young children with motor developmental delay (MDD). Intervention with assistive device for play (ADP) could help children with MDD to increase independency, participations, active learning, and extent their abilities in play activities. However, the use of ADP in young children with MDD was not investigated in Taiwan. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the use and the needs of ADP in young children with MDD. Methods: One hundred and eighty child and main caregiver pairs and 91 child and preschool teacher pairs were recruited in this study. The inclusion criteria of child subjects were (1) age below 6 years; (2) gross MDD as evaluated with Comprehensive Developmental Inventory for Infants and Toddlers. Two self-developed semi-structure questionnaires were developed and the contents were comparable in questions for play characteristics and the use and needs of ADP as one was for the main caregivers and another one was for the preschool teachers. Descriptive statistics was used to describe the use and the needs of ADP. Kappa test was used to compare the difference of aspects between main caregivers and teachers. Chi Square test was used to detect the significance between the possible factors and the use of ADP and the needs of ADP. Binary logistic regression was used to identify the relationships between influencing factors and the use of ADP and the needs of ADP. Results and discussion: The results showed that 27.8% and 50.5% of child subjects played with ADP in family and in school play activities, respectively. The needs of ADP were identified as high as 58.4% and 66.6% for children with MDD in family and in school play activities. The use of AT influenced the use of ADP in both family and school play activities. The use of AT and use of ADP influenced the needs of ADP for children with MDD. This situation reflected that children who had obstacles in daily activities also would have problems in play activities and that’s the reasons they tended to use ADP in play activities. Those children who had more obstacles in daily lives and play activities and those children who used ADP, knowing the benefits of ADP, tended to need ADP more than children who did not use AT and ADP. ADP for gross motor play was used most widely and was needed the best for children with motor developmental delay. Conclusions: The results of the study could provide suggestions and directions in many ways of ADP developing, providing and services. The future studies were suggested to broaden the subject populations of the investigations and to toward the quality survey for more details about ADP in children with disabilities.