THE ROLE OF PLAY ACTIVITIES IN IMPROVING EXPRESSIVE LANGUAGE SKILLS IN A CHILD WITH DOWN SYNDROME

Abstract

Purposeful play is more than necessary for children with Down Syndrome, given that they have special needs, given their apparent isolation and poverty in social relationships, with their constant need for care from the adult community, in light of their slow growth and linguistic, mental, and cognitive delay that continues to accompany them all their livesTherefore, this study aimed to improve the expressive language skills of this group by subjecting them to a set of play activities supervised by a specialized educator within the center for caring for mentally disabled children. The sample consisted of 05 children with Down Syndrome who were chosen intentionally. Their IQ ranged between 57 And 70 degrees on the Stanford-Beneit scale, between the ages of 10 and 14 years. In order to achieve the objectives of this study, the quasi-experimental approach was used, a one-group design with two pre- and post-measurements, with the application of the Expressive Language Skills Scale prepared by the researcher Hind Mahmoud Abdel Samie Ahmed, which resulted in The results of the study show that directed play activities work effectively to improve expressive language skills in children with Down Syndrome affiliated with a center for the care of the mentally disabled.