요일별 신체리듬을 고려한 원예활동이 발달지체 유아의 적응행동에 미치는 영향
Effects of Horticultural Activities in Consideration of Daily Physical Rhythms on Adaptive Behavior of Children with Developmental Delay
Article information
Abstract
This study tries to examine effects of a program of horticultural activities on young children with developmental delay attending an exclusive daycare center for disabled children. The subjects participating in the activities were 16 children attending S Exclusive Daycare Center for Disabled Children, with 8 in the control group and the other 8 i n the experimental group. The program of horticultural activities was carried out 18 times in total with 3 sessions per week for 30 minutes from October 15 to November 22 in 2012. As a result of the overall evaluation of their adaptive behavior, in the case of the control group, the average increased by 1.00 from 65.00 before the program up to 66.00 after the program, while the average increased by 19.50 from 66.00 before up to 85.50 after in the experimental group. Given that in the experimental group, the conceptual adaptive behavior increased from 64.00 up to 80.75, the social adaptive behavior from 65.50 up to 80.63, and the practical adaptive behavior from 74.38 up to 95.38, we can see significant improvement in all the items after the execution of the horticultural activities. From such research results, it has turned out that the program of horticultural activities which was designed in consideration of day-based changes in the children’s physical rhythms, their interest and effectiveness is effective on the promotion of the adaptive behavior of young children with developmental delay attending an exclusive daycare center for disabled children.
I. Introduction
Horticulture can provide various topics in beginning and developing relations with others, and helps understand various roles by providing an opportunity to experience roles in giving and receiving help(Choi, 2000). Especially, in the field of children’s welfare, it provides experiences using environments maximally. This emphasizes the relationship between individuals and environments, and enhancement of adaptability and hence horticultural therapy has been used for the enhancement of social adaptability of chief subjects of social welfare including children, elders, disabled persons etc.(Hwang, 2002). An individual’s difficulty in social adaptation originates from limitations in conceptual, social, and practical skills(Greenspan, 1997).
According to Han’s(2009) research paper on horticultural therapy for disabled young children, disabled children at an average age of 5 with 1st~3rd degree developmental disorders reduced their isolated and avoiding behavior, and increased their social and impulse control abilities. However, as most papers on horticultural therapy for disabled people take as their subjects, disabled children or adolescents, disabled adults at school ages, and their families, work on effectiveness of horticultural therapy on disabled young children is necessary.
The current author examined the children’s interest and effectiveness, and day-based changes in the children’s physical rhythms on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, when it was possible for the children to participate, which had been arranged in terms of interviews with all teachers in charge before designing the program of horticultural activities. They found difference between daily physical rhythms of children. Thus, this study tries to effects of horticultural activities in consideration of daily physical rhythms on adaptive behavior of young children with developmental delay.
II. Materials and Methods
1. Subjects of the study
This study took as its subjects, 16 young children with developmental delay at the ages of 4~6 from S Exclusive Daycare Center for Disabled Children in C City, Gyeongsangnam-do. They were divided into the experimental group and the control group, with 8 children in each group. The experimental group underwent a horticultural program three times a week while the control group did not.
2. Study tools
1) Design of the program for horticultural activities
The current author examined the children’s interest and effectiveness, and day-based changes in the children’s physical rhythms on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, when it was possible for the children to participate, which had been arranged in terms of interviews with all teachers in charge before designing the program of horticultural activities. Thus, the program of horticultural activities was designed in consideration of daybased changes in the children’s physical rhythms, their interest and effectiveness. On Monday, on which children’s physical rhythms and attention lower, the children had experience in purchasing plants needed for the activities from a flower shop on their own. On Tuesday, the program was designed mainly with activities requiring attention like mown doll making and planting. On Thursday, when children’s participation in dynamic activities is high, gift-giving, ornamental activities, outdoor learning, and sense games in order to help them feel interest(Fig. 1).
Design of horticultural activity program in consideration of daily physical rhythms of children with developmental delay for this study.
2) Execution of the program of horticultural activities
The program of horticultural activities was carried out 18 times in total with 3 sessions per week for 30 minutes starting at 11 every morning on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from October 15 to November 22 in 2012.
The activities were carried out with sub-items of adaptive skills to be increased in the program set up. Adaptive behavior, a set of conceptual, social, and practical skills, occurs in the context of peer grous, and is an individualized index of a person’s desire for supporting(Oh, 2008). Thus, this study implemented planting, plant buying, expressing and adorning what they liked etc. so that they could focus on increasing verbal understanding, verbal expression, and the concept of money in conceptual adaptive skills. Furthermore, it implemented activities like cooperating in floral arrangement, making flower cakes to throw a party, cooperating in doing parachute play, and planting and growing plants in order to increase their interpersonal relations and responsibilities in social adaptive skills, while arranging activities like gift-giving and ornamenting for self-respect, buying plants from a flower shop, observing rules and laws in terms of outdoor learning. Lastly, the program was designed to lead the children to experience in managing finances through plant buying for increasing their practical adaptive skills, and repetitive planning for enhancing their work skills(Fig. 2, Table 1).
Skills of adaptive behavior performed by each program for this study.
Horticultural activity programs for the experiment.
3) Measuring tool
This study used the Korea National Institute for Special Education Scales of Adaptive Behavior KNISE-SAB developed by Chung et al.(2003). This tool consists of a total of 242 questions, of which 72 are for the examination of conceptual adaptive skills, 68 for the examination of social adaptive skills, and 102 for the examination of practical adaptive skills. The adaptive behavior index deals with students with developmental delay and common students separately. A higher score means that the child has more promoted its adaptive behavior. The subject children with developmental delay, not diagnosed with obvious mental retardation, were evaluated on their adaptive behavior with reference to common students. The reliability of the adaptive behavior test is Cronbach α=.97.
3. Data analysis
Both the experimental and control groups took the KNISESAB before and after the program. The IBM SPSS statics 19.0 program was used for data analysis. The Mann Whitney test, among other non-parametric tests, was used to determine the homogeneity of the two groups before the execution of the horticultural activities. Furthermore, the Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to compare the subjects within each group before and after the program.
III. Results and Discussion
1. Test of homogeneity between the groups
The results of the analysis of the homogeneity between the control and experimental groups with respect to their conceptual, social, and practical adaptive behavior before the execution of the horticultural activities are shown in Table 2. There appeared not significant differences in their conceptual, social, and practical adaptive behavior. Thus, the two groups were regarded as similar in adaptive behavior.
Homogeneity of subjects in adaptive behavior before the experiment between control and experimental group.
2. Adaptive behavior test of the subjects
The results of the analysis of the adaptive behavior of the control and experimental groups before and after the execution of the program of horticultural activities are as follows(Table 3). First, in the control group, the index of conceptual adaptive behavior increased by 1.50 from 66.00 up to 67.50, the index of social adaptive behavior by 0.75 from 64.00 up to 64.75, and the index of practical adaptive behavior by 0.75 from 72.50 up to 73.25. Given the overall changes in their adaptive behavior, we can see that the average slightly increased by 1.00 from 65.00 before the program up to 66.00 after the program. These results are due to the fact that children attending an exclusive daycare center for disabled children constantly receive individual or collective education and learn and acquire social adaptive behavior skills if they do not participate in horticultural activities.
On the other hand, in the experimental group, the index of conceptual adaptive behavior increased by 16.75 from 64.00 up to 80.75, the index of social adaptive behavior by 15.13 from 65.50 up to 80.63, and the index of practical adaptive behavior by 21.00 from 74.38 up to 95.38. In contrast to the control group, they showed considerable differences in the scores of every sub-item domain. That is to say, given the overall changes in the adaptive behavior indexes, the average increased by 19.50 from 66.00 up to 85.50, and showed statistical significance.
Based on such results, we can say that the horticultural therapy makes it possible to approach students with cognitive retardation without psychological burden, and at the same time, it is effective on promotion of adaptive behavior, given that adaptive behavior of students with developmental delay represents their sociality, and promotion of their social adaptive behavior is one of the most important goals of their education. This similar to what Cho(2001) suggested. Furthermore, they are also in the same vein as Lee(2012), who claimed that horticultural programs promote social interactions, communications, and individual life skills in children with developmental delay, and experience-based activities increase their will of positive verbal expression and have positive influence on their adaptive behavior. Sim(2007) suggested that horticultural therapy had positive effects on adaptive behavior of children with mental retardation was mostly based on its educational effects and merits. Kim(2004) suggested that gardening therapeutic programs are brought by physical side activities of it and then addition of emotional program will have a significant influence on improving this area.
From such research results, it has turned out that the program of horticultural activities which was designed in consideration of day-based changes in the children’s physical rhythms, their interest and effectiveness is effective on the promotion of the adaptive behavior of young children with developmental delay attending an exclusive daycare center for disabled children.
IV. 적요
본 연구는 장애전담 어린이집에 재원 중인 발달지체유아를 대상 으로 요일별 신체리듬을 고려한 원예활동 프로그램이 유아의 적응 행동에 미치는 영향에 대해 알아보고자 하였다. 원예활동 대상자는 S장애전담 어린이집에서 4세~6세 발달지체유아 대조군 8명, 실험 군 8명이었다. 원예활동 프로그램은 2012년 10월 15일부터 2012 년 11월 22일까지 주 3회 30분씩 총 18회 실시하였다. 전체 적응행 동 평가 결과 대조군의 경우 실험 전 65.00점에서 실험 후 66.00점 으로 1.00점이 향상되었고 실험군은 전체 적응행동 평가 결과 실험 전 66.00점에서 실험 후 85.50점으로 19.50점이 향상되었다. 실험 군의 하위항목별 변화를 살펴보면 개념적 적응행동은 원예활동 실 시 전 64.00점에서 실시 후 80.75점으로, 사회적 적응행동은 65.50 점에서 80.63점으로, 실제적 적응행동은 74.38점에서 95.38점으 로 모든 항목이 원예활동 실시 후 유의하게 향상되는 것을 볼 수 있 었다. 이상의 연구결과로부터 요일별 신체리듬의 변화와 유아의 흥 미와 참여도를 고려하여 설계한 원예활동프로그램이 장애전담 어 린이집 내에 재원하고 있는 발달지체유아들의 적응행동 향상에 효 과적인 것으로 나타났다.