Abstract
Play means spontaneous or voluntary recreational activities pursued for enjoyment and accessories or equipment used in the activities; includes games, toys, etc. Play has the power not only to aid in normal child development but also to help alleviate emotional and behavioral difficulties. For over six decades, play therapy has been recognized as the oldest and most popular form of child therapy in clinical practice Hospitalized children require more than recreational play because illness and hospitalization constitute crisis in a child's life and since these situations are fraught with overwhelming stresses, children need to play out their fears and anxieties as a means of coping with these stresses. Play also helps temporarily to divert their mind from pain and loneliness.
Research title: A study to assess the effectiveness of self instructional module regarding importance of needs of play among parents of hospitalized children in selected hospitals of Wardha.
Objectives : 1. To assess the knowledge of parents regarding importance of play needs in hospitalized children.
2. To evaluate the effect of self instructional module on the knowledge of parents of hospitalized children.
3. To associate knowledge with selected demographic variables regarding importance of play needs in hospitalized children.
Methods: Pre-experimental one group pretest design was adopted to accomplish the objectives of the study. A sample of 60 parents whose children were hospitalized were selected by convenient sampling technique. initial knowledge of the parents on knowledge of play for hospitalized children was assessed by administering self structured questionnaire. A self instructional module was given on importance of play for hospitalized children.
Results: The results of the study revealed that the significant difference between the mean pretest and mean post test knowledge scores which was statistically tested using paired 't' test was found to highly significant at 0.05 level of significance.
