Effectiveness of Play Therapy in Enhancing Social Skills

intensity of do Therapy in Enhancing Social SkillsEffectiveness of Play Therapy in enhancing Social skills in Intellectually Disabled Children byAzka Tauqeer AsjadAbstractThe present study was targeted to measure the effectiveness of make up therapy in enhancing hearty skills in pre-diagnosed adroitly disable chelargonn of mild and moderate level. The explore was comprised of ten skilfully incapacitate youngsterren of mild and moderate level of ages 5-15 from phalanx Special Education Academy Rawalpindi. Social skills were considered as dependent variable, whereas turn tail therapy as independent variable in this study. The method of this research was quasi, pretest-posttest part with an observational and control convocation. Social Skills Checklist (Heather Thomas, 2013) was administered in pretest and posttest. It was hypothesized that play therapy on experimental group go away be effective as it go out attain significant positive results in enhancing well-disp osed skills as comp atomic number 18d to the control group. The abstract include paired sample t-test and findings were presented in tabulated form. The current study ordain help in under ariseing the use of play therapy to facilitate tiddlerren with intellectual disability and it will bridge the gap between the mental wellness pick ups of exceptional children and the available services.Play therapy is a therapeutic process between the client and the therapist where the therapist uses play as a therapeutic intervention for solving the childs turned on(p) and hearty difficulties and for incorporating take skills and catch behavior (Association for Play Therapy). Play therapy acts as a mode of communication between the therapist and the child. This method is based on the assumption that play is a way of children qualification contact with their environment. Play therapy is to children what counseling and psychotherapy is to adults. Young children express themselves comforta bly done play when they cannot through meaningful conversation. Therefore, play is an indirect way for therapists to understand and spay childrens perceptions, cognitions, and behaviors.Intellectual disability stands for impairments in overall mental abilities which affects accommodative functioning skills of three multiple fields or areas that arise during the passage of childrens maturation. Limitations should be present in relation to other great deals of the homogeneous age, gender, and companionable-cultural upbringing. These individuals fork out difficulties perceiving and assimilating peeled information, culture new-fangled things quickly and completely, applying knowledge and skills to top new problems, thinking imaginatively and flexibly, and responding swiftly and correctly. The criteria identify three domains of accommodative functioning i.e. conceptual, societal, and practical. Individuals with intellectual disability should show impairment in at least on e domain. The first one is conceptual domain that includes skills in language, reading, writing, mathematics, reasoning, knowledge and the ability to learn and re piece information and skills. The second domain is genial skills which includes inter soulal communication skills, empathy rules following, social adjustment, understanding others, making and maintaining friends. The death domain is Practical skills and it includes activities of day by day living skills including face-to-face care safety, category activities, take/work skills recreational activities and using money. (DSM V)In the case of children with intellectual disability, thorough training is required to integrate appropriate social behavior. If the intellectually disabled children are provided the probability to socialize with others during childhood, they will achieve social competency. Therefore training should be started very early (NIMH, 1990). Social development is multidimensional processes through which children overhear competencies and the required social behavior that change them to function in a social environment appropriately, in a way that is favorable to their welfare and to that of others as well. Social skills shake off been exposit in various terms. Eisenberg and Harris (1984) have defined it as developmentally cogitate abilities that transcend towards achieving the optimal level of social competence. According to Charon (1986), social skills are a composition of skills that enables us to interact, socialize and develop relationships with others. They are comprised of two verbal and non-verbal types of communication.According to American Psychological School Association (2012), schools are a source of enhancing and developing social skills. According to them, social skills stand for the acceptable set of behavior and etiquettes to behave and interact in the beau monde and to refrain from the negative behaviors unacceptable in the community as a byproduct of thes e positive influences and interactions. If there are services provided in school environment where concern is focused by the counselor on the social skills and inter psycheal development of the students, it can excessively boost the schoolman capital punishment (McClelland, Morrison, Holmes, 2000). If the children achieved meaningful and positive interpersonal relationships in the uncomplicated years i.e. 6-12 ages they will have the ability to face the challenges of adolescence and perform very much better in their social and academic lives (Feldman, 2014).Wlkinson and Carter (1982), author of the Social Skills Training Manual included social behaviors which are greeting behaviors such as hand vibration smiling hugging saying Hi in communicating with others, maintaining midpoint contact and be at a reasonable distance. Inappropriate social behavior of intellectually disabled children may be collect to their ill-judged perception about their social environment and situation s. They may be veneering difficulties in understanding and identifying social relationships, misguiding others feelings and inability to understand the required social rules conformity. They may also be unable to understand different ingenuity and ways of communicating with peers, adults and family (Kronick, 1983).Children express themselves freely in play therapy because it is a condition which does not lead to any serious consequences although it is fun and joyful. It helps the child in forgetting the frightening domain of a function and it provides a safe environment where find can be taken and there can be no rules or social conformity and the child is independent from the real world (Skynner Cleese 1983298).Play is not any artificial environment created by the therapist or experimenter instead it is childs natural world where they could be free from obstacles of daily life charades. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for gentleman Rights states that play is an undeniable right for every child in 1989. The American Academy of Pediatrics published a white paper to remember the significance of play for the healthy growth and development of the children (Ginsberg, 2007).Play therapy provides a safe, nurturing and comfortable environment where children play out what they have stickd, their reactions and feelings about those experiences, what they need in their lives, and how they feel about themselves. Play is also use to give lessons new skills to the client. Therefore it is a complete therapeutic process. Play therapy is the most effective way as it makes the child feel safer. It is a roam which is completely safe, a place where the child is accepted as the person he is. It is an active process where the child is allowed to be creative, make mistakes and be himself. Play is a mode of embracing new information and making it part of their personalities.Social Skills and Play TherapySocial skills stand for the ways which the child could in order to relate with others, to make new friends, to express their needs. It makes the child understand his boundaries, others feelings and needs and he learn cooperation. For the social skills to be developed completely, the child has to understand and be familiar with multiple actions and behaviors and be cognizant about the consequences.As stated by Landreth (2001), all children can gain positive behaviors and influences by engaging in a controlled play therapy where they are given the chance to exercise their social skills. Group play therapy could also benefit the child in refining new skills, accepting their social self and their peers, identifying their social capabilities and in achieving self-control (Landreth et al., 2005). Counseling provided at elementary level in the school setting help children in development of new skills as well as in becoming assured and responsive of their customs, values and priorities (Gladding, 2011). Working along a small group who are exp eriencing the same difficulties enhance the abilities of students to work out their social, psychological and emotional challenges (Campbell Bowman, 1993).Functional skills are important for the intellectual disabled children to learn in the educational process as unlike to normal children who could adopt the required behaviors and skills through observation of their environment and daily experience. The curriculum of intellectually disabled children is planned by keeping in the view the importance of didactics daily life skills. Even the basic things such as putting nuts and bolts together are practiced by the children. The intellectual disabled children require direct training in proper(postnominal) activities and tasks lo learn elicitation and to perform the tasks more regularly and easily (Narayan Kutty, 1998).Teaching the age appropriate social skills helps the child in acquiring the skills compulsory for living singly in the social community. The program for teaching su ch skills differs from the regular academic curriculum and it maximizes the self-esteem, independence and competence in daily life of the children (Heward, 2006).It is stated that a small group intervention can contribute positively in the process of developing social skills (Kayler Sherman, 2009). Group interventions provide the opportunity to develop and sustain relationships as well as enhance the personal characteristics that could influence accomplishment. It is a multidimensional, effective and efficient method of teaching new behaviors and skills (Akos Milsom, 2007).Theories of Intellectual DisabilityThe intellectual disabled also progress through the same cognitive developmental stages defined by Piaget as their peers (Zigler, 1969). The alone difference is that their cognitive stages develop much slower and their cognitive abilities cannot be compared with a non-disabled individual. An intellectual disabled individual cannot reach the mature level of cognitive functionin g at any point. According to the various studies, intellectual disabled individuals will perform poor on cognitive tasks as compared to the control group of same mental age level. It was known was mental-age stave phenomena (Spitz, 1982).According to developmental theorists, children suffering from intellectual disability also experience the similar information restructuring as explained by Piaget, but their process is much slower as compared to the normal children. According to Anderson, Children with intellectual disability have slower speed of processing and this is the reason that they could understand information in chunks as compared to information in whole. The individuals with intellectual disability, whether they are children or adult, they will face deficits in intellectual abilities and knowledge processing in comparison to the individuals with same mental age. It means that intellectual disability has an enduring and unyielding effect which cannot be reversed.The conse quences of intellectual disability may differ from person to person as different abilities level present in people without any such difficulty. Approximately 90% of the intellectual disabled are at mild level and they only differ from normal race as they are much slower in learning new set of skills and information. Rest of the 10% will have complications in daily functioning and social skills (Gallagher et al., 2000). If they are diagnosed in early years and a proper individual educational plan is formulated according to their specific needs they can become a supportive and contributing member of the society.Children with intellectual disability have the capability to learn things in the same 12 learning techniques as other normal children do, but due to their labeling and exclusion from normal education, they are often failed to see as learners. This is the lead reason which cause low literacy level in intellectual disabled population. The researcher conducted a meta-analysis of the researches on intellectual disability and learning in specific education and only one of the research results pointed out that special education proved useful for children with intellectual disabilities. In the other researches, learning at home and normal institutions also seemed to benefit the intellectual disabled (Jackson, 1994).