Occupational therapy activities developed with children and pre-teens with down syndrome

Abstract

The objective of this work is to describe the activities used in a therapeutic toy library with groups of children and pre-teens with Down syndrome and to correlate them with the age group. For that, an analytical study of 297 activities developed with 44 participants with Down syndrome from 2 to 13 years old was performed, based on the analysis of the Activity Record Sheet. To meet the first objective, a descriptive univariate analysis was performed, using absolute and relative frequencies for the categorical variables. In order to answer the second objective, which compared the categorical variables related to the activities developed in the toy library with the age groups, a bivariate analysis was performed using the chi-square test (X2). The results showed that a varied set of activities was used, especially those involving music, stacking, fitting and building games for the 2 to 3 years old and 11 months old group; expressive activities for the 4 to 7 years old and 11 months old group; and games, math activities, reading, writing, and activities related to language development for the 8 to 13 years old group. The study brought relevant data to the development of Occupational Therapy in the childhood area, especially in working with children with intellectual disabilities.