The Effect of “Clownish Play” Parental Intervention on Parent-Child Interaction for Parents of Children with Intellectual Disability: A Pilot Study

• In Event: Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Topic - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

Introduction: The present pilot study, is based on a previous research that showed the positive contribution of medical clowns, on enhancing playing skills of children with intellectual disabilities (ID) (Feniger-Schaal, Citron, Mittlelberg, & Ben Eli, 2018). The current research, examined the effects of parental workshop play intervention, aspired by medical clown principals, on the parent-child interaction quality, among parents for children with intellectual disability. The hypothesizes were twofold: the play intervention workshop for parents will enhance the quality of the parent-child interaction; the subjective, self-report perception of parent’s playfulness will be improved following the intervention.
Method: Eight parents, two fathers and six mothers, participated in the intervention, all had children age 4-6 with intellectual disability) ID(. The intervention included four sessions, two-hours meeting. The workshop aimed to let parents experience nonsense play, have fun, get along, be flexible, have an imaginative world and to experience the idea of ‘follow the child's leads’. All meeting were facilitated led by an experienced medical clown, a developmental psychologist and a theater director. All parents were videotaped, before and after the intervention to evaluate the quality of parent-child interaction in four play episodes: social play, free play, symbolic play and clean up, 20 minutes in total. The Emotional Availability Scale (EA) (Biringen, Derscheid, Vliegen, Closson, & Easterbrooks, 2014), were used to evaluate parent-child interaction from observation the scales yield four different dimensions: sensitivity, structuring, non-intrusiveness and non-hostility, addressing the parent’s side of EA. The observation were codded by two trained coders on the EA. In addition, the parents were asked to fill a questionnaire pre and post intervention regarding their perception of playfulness in the context of parenting their child.
Results: using the Wilcoxon Signed-Ranks test, we tested the differences before and after intervention. According to hypothesis, in social play, EA dimensions of sensitivity, structure and non-intrusiveness, were higher after intervention compared to before the intervention. In addition, differences in symbolic play were found on the non-intrusiveness and non-hostility dimensions, which were higher after intervention. In addition, the results show that the parents’ playfulness perception after the intervention was significantly higher than before the intervention. These preliminary results indicate the unique gains of the parental play workshop intervention, and its effect of enhancing the quality of parent interactions with their children with ID. Limitations of the study, along with areas for future research, are also discussed.

Authors

• Nebal Khoury, University of Haifa
  Presenting Author

• Rinat Feniger-Schaal, Haifa University
  Non-Presenting Author