The Play of Disabled Children in Early Development.

Play is a central facilitating element of early development. As a child plays, he or she practices spontaneously cognitive, emotional, and motor abilities. This research project, part of a larger project on early intervention with young disabled children, investigated the play of children with a motor handicap. The sample consisted of 61 disabled children age 0 to 7 years who regularly visit the department of Paediatric Neurology at Tampere University Hospital in Finland. Cognitive development and motor functioning were assessed with formalized tests, and play activities (both structured and unstructured) were videotaped, and the level of play and motor functioning were assessed. Preliminary results, presented in three examples of individual children, revealed extensive variation among children. Although most made progress in play activities and in mental and motor functioning, several did not (they had severe mental and motor disabilities). The capacity of the child's gross motor functioning affected play development: the better the gross motor functioning, the higher the level of play. Results also suggested that disabled children exhibit pattern of developmental play sequence similar to that of nondisabled children. (Contains 38 references.) (EV)