INTRODUCTION:

Play is an important mechanism through which integration occurs. Play is a valuable tool that enhances growth and aids in the development of motor skills and sensory and perceptual capabilities .Play enhances coping strategies, release tension and allows the child to react and reconstruct the events and interaction that occur in daily life. Through play the child safely experiments, evaluates and moral and ethical questions right of right and wrong.¹

Play can also make the hospital stay a learning experience and can results in more constructive patient – child interactions and more realistic perceptions of events related to the illness or injury. Play provides the freedom to express the emotions and allows the child a sanctuary from stress, because play help the child cope with unpleasant experience.²

NEED OF THE STUDY:

Play therapy is a systematic use of theoretic model to establish an interpersonal process to achieve optimal growth and development. According to the psychodynamic view people engage in a play behaviour in order to relieve anxieties and stress. In this way play therapy can be used as a self-mechanism. From the developmental point of view play has been determined to be an essential component of healthy child development.³

A study conducted among 100 children with behaviour disturbances to assess the effectiveness of play therapy has revealed that after providing 30 sessions of non-directive play therapy there is a decrease in the behaviour disturbances among the group. The study concluded that the play therapy is effective to decrease the behavioural disturbance.⁴

Anecdotally, play therapy has been use full for multiple populations included adoptive mothers, foster mothers, mother of mentally retarded children, and teacher referred mothers of acting out or with draw child. Play therapy used for 16 weeks with 6 children’s in the program. Positive results were reported and the 4 parents conducted play therapy can be practically applied in agency and community mental health setting and this is supported by research.⁵

OBJECTIVES:

The objectives of the study are:

1) To assess the knowledge of mothers of under five children regarding play therapy before and after structured teaching programme.

2) To assess the practice of mothers of under five children regarding play therapy before and after structured teaching programme.

3) To evaluate the effectiveness of structured teaching programme regarding play therapy in terms of knowledge gain and improvement in practice.

4) To find out the association between knowledge and their selected demographic variable.

5) To find out the association between practice and their selected demographic variable.

HYPOTHESIS:

H₁: There will be significant level of knowledge of mothers of under five children regarding play therapy before and after structured teaching programme.

H₂: There will be significant level of practice of mothers of under five children regarding play therapy before and after structured teaching programme.

H₃: There will be positive relationship between post test knowledge score and post test practice score among mothers of under five children regarding play therapy.

H₄: There will be association between knowledge among mothers of under five children and their selected demographic variable.

H₅: There will be significant level of practice of mothers of under five children regarding play therapy before and after structured teaching programme.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

Research design:

The research design selected for this study is one group pre-test post-test, pre-experimental study design.

Setting of the study:

The study was under taken in kadusonapanahalli PHC at Bangalore. The population selected from this setting was mothers of under five children.

Population:

The population comprises of mothers of under five children attending kadusonapanahalli PHC at Bangalore.

Sample size:

In this study the sample size was decided to be 60 mothers of under five children.

Sampling technique:

Random sampling technique was used to select 60 mothers of under five children attending kadusonapanahalli PHC at Bangalore.

Data analysis plan:

The collected data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics.

FINDINGS:

Major study findings includes,

A. Findings related to demographic variables of the study

1. The majority of mothers belong to the age group 26-35 years of age (35%).

2. The majority of children belong to age group 2-3 (43.333%) .

3. The majority of child (50%) is male and (50%) are female.

4. The majority of mothers (48.3%)belongs to joint family.

5. The majority of mothers (70%) residing in rural area.

6. The majority of mothers (35%) had studied till secondary school.

7. The majority of mothers (70%) are self-employeeThe majority of mothers (41.67%) have monthly income of Rs.1501-2000/-

8. The majority of mothers(43.33%) got source of information from newspaper.

9. The paired t test was carried out and it was found to be variably significant at p>0.001 level, hypothesis was accepted .It evidence that the structured teaching program (STP) is significantly effective on improving the knowledge regarding play therapy among mothers of under five children.

10. The paired t test was carried out and it was found to be variably significant at P>0.001 level, hypothesis was accepted .It evidence that the structured teaching program (STP) is significantly effective on improving the practice regarding play therapy among mothers of under five children.

With regard to association between the level of knowledge with their selected demographical variables such as educational status of the mothers of under five children at level P>0.001 level, occupation of mothers at level of P>0.01 and family income at level of P>0.05 level had significant association found. The study shows that the calculated chi square value is more than the tabulated value at the level of 0.05 for these demographic variables. This shows there is a significant association between the effectiveness of planned teaching programme regarding knowledge and practice regarding play therapy among mothers of under-five children and selected demographic variables.

CONCLUSION:

The main conclusion from this present study is that most of the mothers of under five children had inadequate and moderate level of knowledge and practice inpretest and they improved to moderate and adequate level of knowledge and practice in post test. This shows the imperative need to understand the purpose of planned teaching programme regarding improving the knowledge and practice about play therapy among mothers of under five children.

REFERENCE:

1. B.labovits Bokti;”Manual for psychotherapist of various orientations”2002; 2(6):67-72.

2. Eliot.g Abd pumfery; “The effect on directive play therapy”. Educational research 2000; 14(13):57-163.

3. Duff. A study of the effects of group play on a family relation”, international journal of play therapy 1996.Vol:5(2).81 93.

4. Eaker. “Unloking the family sachet in play therapy “,.child and adolescent social wok journal.1986.Vol:3(4).235-253.

5. Johnsonthe use of child centered play therapy and filial therapy with head start families: a brief report. Journal of family therapy: Vol: 25(2) 169-179.

Received on 27.04.2018 Modified on 12.06.2018

Int. J. Nur. Edu. and Research. 2018; 6(4):348-350.

DOI: 10.5958/2454-2660.2018.00084.4