Influence of Group Active Play on Social Skill and Emotion Regulation in Children with Hearing Impairment

Objectives: Hearing impairment is one of the sensory problems in children that affects various aspects of their lives and impacts their social skill and emotion regulation.  Research indicated that active play has an important role on social and emotional development of children. Aline with this, the present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of group active plays (GAP) on the social skill (SS) and emotion regulation (ER) of children with hearing impairment. Method: This quasi-experimental study involved a pretest-posttest design with a two-month follow-up. The participants included of ۷ to ۱۲-year-old boys with hearing impairment who were enrolled in the deaf-hearing impaired schools (۲۰۲۲-۲۰۲۳). Thirty children were randomly assigned to an experimental group (n=۱۵) and a control group (n=۱۵). The experimental group participated in ۱۲ interventional sessions, while the control group just had the regular school program. Both groups completed SS and ER questionnaires (including before and after the intervention, and also two months after the intervention (follow-up). The data were analyzed by Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)  with SPSS version ۲۵. Results: The results of this study indicated that there was a significant difference between the control and experimental groups in social skill (p < ۰.۰۰۲). Group active play also had a significant effect on emotion regulation (p < ۰.۰۰۱). Moreover, it had a significant effect on liability/negativity which was one of the components of ER (p < ۰.۰۲۲). Conclusion: Based on the obtained results, it can be concluded that the implemented intervention (group active play) has helped to improve SS, ER, and its component (liability/negativity) in children with hearing impairment. Coaches, teachers, and therapists can take steps towards enhancing SS and ER in children with hearing impairment by implementing group active play.

Keywords:

Play and playthings (Group active play) , Social skill , Emotion regulation , Hearing ​​​​​​​