"Make-Believe-Game' languagen" in physical treatment on children spastic hemiplegic

L?cia Barbatto Piva
Fisioterapia; FCT/UNESP

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     Last modified: February 27, 2007

Abstract
By the present study we described how the ?Make-Believe Game? was applied in physical treatment on children suffering from spastic hemiplegia, who presented resistances to specif techniques accomplishment for their neurological picture.
The aim that drove us was verify if the physiotherapy exercises contextualization, by the use of imaginary situations, made these resistances decrease. We worked, in this study, with three children aged from four to five years, plus six months old.
We developed the research in two stages, called, respectively, Multiple Base Line and Intervention.
The first one, consisted in intervening physiotherapeuticalyy without the ?Make-Believe? play context; the second one, the Intervention properly said, was contextualized by the use of the ?Make-Believe Game? activities, during therapy.
The sessions were filmed and, based on these filmings, we computed the Resistance Occurrence frequency checked each session, already characterized, from a preliminary study, as well as the forms through they have been manifested.
The results showed us that the Resistance Absolute Frequency decreased with the ?Make-Believe? introduction, evidencing an increase in the sessions duration since the Multiple Base Line phase. We also tried to verify if the Resistance Average Frequency, per minute, has been affected by the ?Make-Believe? introduction, however this didn?t happen: the session times had as less accelerated rise than the ones observed for the decreasing in the Resistance absolute Frequency, from the first to the second work phase.
We noticed, furthermore, changes in the children?s verbalization contents, related to their injured limbs, while in play time situation. These changes indicated that the children started to relate themselves with their bodies, in the limits of these play contexts, in a completely different way.
We tried, throughout these results, to understand which means, present in the ?Make-Believe?, could be affecting the Resistances. We considered, further, which factors could be acting upon the situation, to increase the sessions? duration.