Consequences of Visual Impairment for Childrens Play - Essay Example

For any child, the early childhood years are crucial for its overall development. That is, in these early years only they will learn a lot and also needed to be taught a lot about various concepts and aspects. Apart from the small things or concepts taught by the parents, siblings, relatives etc as part of life’s education, the children will tend to learn many things on its own. On their own, the children learn from the environment, the things they handle, the words they hear and importantly from the images they see. So, vision is very important and this paper will analyze, the importance of vision or how the lack of vision through some visual impairment will affect the overall development of the children, through a journal, The consequences of visual impairment for children’s symbolic and functional play written by V. Lewis, S. Norgate, G. Collis and R. Reynolds. Journal Review of this article - The consequences of visual impairment for children’s symbolic and functional play Summary The crucial formative years only functions as a perfect setting for the child to develop physically, intellectually and emotionally. And with the eye playing the chief role, the children with visual impairment are put at a disadvantage and the journal justifies it through lot of studies and surveys about functional and symbolic plays. Functional play is defined as the appropriate play with toys, which are physically similar to everyday objects but often of a different size. While symbolic play is defined as the play, in which the children will participate, where they will substitute something for something else. The main aim of the studies carried out in this journal is to find out, the effect, visual impairment (VI) will have on the symbolic and functional play of the children. Other aims of the study include, to explore the relationships between functional and symbolic play and language ability as well as autistic-like behaviors in children with VI. By using the Symbolic Play Test (SPT) and by using the Test of Pretend Play (ToPP), the study confirmed the previously reported fact that delay in the development of pretend play occurs in children with VI. And the final results of this study have clearly demonstrated that children with VI are more likely to produce functional and symbolic play in structured settings only. But even in the structured settings, they will be at a great disadvantage if they are required to play with several objects at a time. Additional argument & Supportive literature From another article So this article gives lot of views and results that gives new meanings and reasons. The reasons for the total absence or partial absence of functional and symbolic play in visually impaired children are common worldwide. Though there are advanced treatments to cure this impairment, there are some limitations. So the message of this journal is, the under development of symbolic and functional play in some children, which is caused by visual impairment, will actually give different perspectives. That is, the social interactions of the children could also contribute to this situation of VI, limiting the ability of the blind children. That is, the ability to socialize is the main quality of humans having its origins in childhood itself. And through another journal titled Symbolic play in congenitally blind children written by Martin Bishop, R. Peter Hobson and Anthony Lee, shows the correlation between social interaction and the inability of the child to perform the functional and symbolic plays. That is, a group of 13, 5 to 9-year-old congenitally blind children were tested for the ability to symbolize. And as important criteria the blind children were selected on the basis that they did not have the syndrome of autism. This was done to exclude the autistic children, who may show difficulty in both the functional and symbolic play. And also importantly the groups were selected in such a way that the composition of the two groups had the verbal ability matching the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. This was again done to find the children whose IQ levels are acceptable because the researchers want to leave out the mentally underdeveloped children and concentrate on children who may have the ability to socialize or not. And the results from the study reveals that congenitally blind children who were judged by teachers to have difficulties in their social relations had limitations in symbolic play when compared with language matched congenitally blind children who were socially able. Indeed, it has been suggested that social impairments are common among congenitally blind children from early in life. There are, of course, other reason like their immaturity, which may limit their access to others’ minds that could explain blind children’s lack of social engagement and the resultant poor impoverishment in symbolic play. From lecture notes Piaget argued that children are essentially egocentric during the preoperational stage (up to about 7 years). And in that stage, they could not understand the perspective of others. Piaget argued that children must be able to decentre (see something from anothers perspective) in order to pass this test, and that preschoolers, especially visually impaired could not decenter and this will have an impact on their ability to socialize and thereby restricting the symbolic and functional plays. Then Leslie suggests that between 18 and 24 months children discover the difference between reality and pretense - requiring what Leslie terms decoupling. And, both decoupling and symbolic play require, the ability to hold mental representations of abstract, imaginary events, objects, people etc. and here again the visually impaired child will be at a disadvantage when it comes to the functional and symbolic plays. Structure & Style The structure of the article, The consequences of visual impairment for children’s symbolic and functional play is very well planned out. That is, each section is given importance from the introduction to the studies, methods of studies and the final discussion. Talking about the style of the article, it is free-flowing moving from one study to another without stumbling blocks. And also style mirrors the styles normally adopted by experts who specialize in the field of physiology cum psychology. As both these specialized branch of science is integrated in the journal, the style adopted by the authors suits the journal. But, in the overall analysis the structure and style of the entire article does not show fluidity. Fluidity in the sense, it shows some kind of ‘start and stop effect’. As the paper has lot of studies one cannot concentrate on one study, analyze it and come to the conclusions about the said study because before one study ends another study crops up. It is the same structure and style, which is visible throughout the novel. And importantly there seems to be little analysis for each study. That is space given for the analysis for each study is limited and it shows in the incompleteness of what the authors are trying to convey. So, the structure and style adopted by the authors has both pros and cons. Clinical relevance And there are some ways in which the article, The consequences of visual impairment for children’s symbolic and functional play written by V. Lewis, S. Norgate, G. Collis and R. Reynolds will be relevant to clinical practice. That is, the results of these studies clearly bring out the connection between the symbolic play and the language. So, the importance of symbolic play and its correlation with the language level of the child could be a very useful tool in the assessment of language of the child. Also clinicians stress how symbolic play fosters sighted children’s capacity to manage their own feelings and be open to others, any ways that clinicians might have difficulty applying the information. As it is a complex field, the views could border on complexity as well but the point is, the pretense plays have many nice things to do. And there are also ways in which the clinicians might have difficulty applying the information. That is, this difficulty will arise when the studies that proves autistic features in blind children as an SLT, should always be aware of this concept while carrying out an assessment and intervention in visually impaired children. Reference Bishop, M., Hobson, P., & Lee, A. (2005). Symbolic play in congenitally blind children. Development and Psychopathology. 447-465. Read More