Children with mental deficiency and interpersonal relationships in a community toy library

Abstract

Contemporary society has been limiting the play activity of children. Children with mental deficiency also have to face psychosocial barriers. A community toy library can be a place where it is possible to face limitations while playing. The objective was to describe the interpersonal relationships among children with mental deficiency and children without deficiency in a context of community toy library, pointing out how this context can influence these relationships. Basic procedures were a group of children was observed during ten meetings. In this group, two children had mental deficiency. The description of the play situation that involved the issue of deficiency was used as collection focus. Categories of data collection were: type of game, interaction style and its social character. An episode was compared with another involving the same participants, aiming to identify transformation or not of the type of interaction of social or agonistic character. We identified three significant interaction contexts: passage interactions, interactions in parallel games and interactions in games with another child. It seems that the passage interactions potentialized more agonistic interactions, while the parallel games potentialized more pro-social interactions. Situations of school play, fantasies and games seemed to potentialize more pro-social interactions, because of the fact that the members of the group chose the games and their companions. Although games in which all children participated gave visibility and group participation to children with mental deficiency, they showed a larger amount of agonistic and pro-social interactions. As conclusions, Children with mental deficiency have conquered a place. A place to go, to play, to find children, to transform themselves, their relationships and the relationship of the others.