Therapeutic Play for the Severely Disabled Population

Intro[edit | edit source]

The job of a child is to play. Through playful interactions, children are able to express their curiosity and creativity. Playing facilitates gross and fine motor, language, social, pre-academic and psychosocial skills.

Stages of Play[edit | edit source]

Based on Paiget's stages of cognitive development, the Takata Play Taxonomy (1974) divides play into five stages. Each stage interactions and complexity in activities progressively increases.

  1. Sensorimotor:
    • cause-effect toys
    • considerable amount of practice
    • high level of exploration
  2. Symbolic:
    • use of objects to represent actual objects (toy phone represent real phone)
    • parallel play is noted during this stage
  3. Dramatic:
    • role-playing
    • cooperative play
  4. Game with Rules:
    • aspect of competition
    • cooperative play
    • board games, puzzles, crafts, sport-related
  5. Recreation:
    • team participation
    • sports, hobbies
    • dancing, team sports, music, tabletop games, books[1]

Children with Disabilities[edit | edit source]

Children with severe or multiple disabilities may have barriers to play due to their physical, language and/or cognitive impairments. Often times, play for these children is often neglected. Children with severe disabilities are typically dependent on their family or caregivers to play. If they are not able to express their wants clearly, they will be presented with limited options of toys or activities to explore. As a result, they will miss opportunities to expand their development. The decreased opportunity to self-direct play can further impact their interest in play and their self-esteem. [1]


Research shows that children with severe disabilities have similar interests to typically developing children despite their medical needs and barriers. They want to engage in physical play, read books, watch movies, socialise and play with electronics. Understanding their developmental level can provide insight regarding activities of interest for them. This in turn will promote a more positive play experience.[1]

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327567615_Teaching_Play_Skills_to_Children_with_Disabilities_Research-Based_Interventions_and_Practices

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10643-022-01369-4

https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1696&context=ojot

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0308022620967293

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9099238/

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249002404_Play_in_Children_with_Severe_Multiple_Disabilities_Play_with_toys_-_a_review

https://raisingchildren.net.au/disability/school-play-work/play-friends/play-friendship-disability

https://bmcpediatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12887-021-02827-5

https://www.sense.org.uk/information-and-advice/life-stages/childhood-and-school/how-to-play-with-a-child-with-complex-disabilities/

https://jneuroengrehab.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12984-018-0464-x




Additional resources:

https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1746530/631583/Bulgarelli_2020_Perspectives%20and%20research%20on%20play%20for%20children%20with%20disabilities.pdf

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Hui S, Dimitropoulou K. iCan-Play: A practice guideline for assessment and intervention of play for children with severe multiple disabilities. The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy. 2020;8(3):1-4.
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