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Published on: January 18, 2013
Play in orphanages
Vikas Taneja1, R S Beri, J M Puliyel
1Department of Pediatrics, St. Stephen's Hospital, Delhi, India.
Objectives:
This paper attempts to validate the programme of structured play lasting 90 minutes a day, for use in orphanages, to check if it can be replicated in other orphanages, with similar results.
Methods:
A 2-week workshop on the structured play scheme was conducted at the Missionaries of Charity Orphanage in Delhi, the venue of the original project. 15 MOC sisters from 6 centers attended the workshop. The authors selected the MOC orphanage at Chandigarh to track the benefits of the programme. The development quotient of all the residents between the ages of 6 months - 3 years was assessed by a pediatric-clinical-psychologist using the Development Assessment Scale for Indian Infants (DAS II) scale. A reassessment of all these children was done again 3 months after initiating the programme of structured play here.
Results:
The mean motor and mental scores at the orphanage in Chandigarh before the start of the intervention were 57.9 and 58.2 respectively. Post intervention assessments showed a rise of 23 points in both the scores.
Conclusion:
The development of children in orphanages rises dramatically after initiating a programme of play. The pre-intervention development scores is similar to that in a pilot study and the benefits after play was also similar. The play programme can be easily replicated in other orphanages with similar results.
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