Abstract
Background: Play is very important as it helps cognitive, language, social, emotional and physical development. The value of play is increasingly recognized by researchers for children as the evidence mounts of its relationship with intellectual achievement, language development and emotional wellbeing.
Aim of Study: To assess play skills in a group of children having cognitive delay (mild and moderate cognitive delay with or without Down's syndrome) and to study the correlation between play level, language skills and cognitive skills in these children.
Subjects and Methods: 75 Egyptian preschool children aged between 2 and 5 years were divided into 3 groups; group of normal children, group of children with Cognitive Delay (CD) and group of Down Syndrome's (DS). They were sub-jected to the protocol of Arabic language assessment and a play observation checklist designed in this study. The checklist covered the following items; level of play, behavior of the child during play, receptive skills & language use during play, child interaction with peers & with adults as well as problem solving during play.
Results: Normal children under study had higher play skills and language skills than children with CD & DS children. Cognitive level of children with CD and DS was correlated positively with some aspects of their play skills such as language use during play in CD and problem solving, receptive skills and language use during play in DS children. Total Language score was highly correlated with all play aspects in CD and most of play aspects in DS children.
Conclusion: Cognitive level, development of play skills and language abilities were interrelated in groups under study (CD and DS).