Variability of self-regulatory strategies in children with intellectual disability and typically developing children in pretend play situations.
Add clear steps and roles to pretend play and both kids with ID and typical peers show stronger self-regulation.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers watched the preschoolers play house and doctor. Half had intellectual disability (ID). Half were typically developing. Kids played in two rooms: one with lots of toys and no rules, one with clear play steps.
The team counted how often each child planned, checked, or fixed their own play moves. These counts showed self-regulation strength.
What they found
Both groups reached the same pretend level, but kids with ID joined the play less. In the tidy, step-by-step room, every child used more self-regulation tricks. Loose play gave weaker links to self-control.
Structure helped everyone, yet the gap in involvement stayed.
How this fits with other research
Vieillevoye et al. (2008) saw the same ID group lag in self-regulation during free play. Their 2008 study had no structure tweak, so the new data adds: give rules, see the boost.
Kirshner et al. (2016) found preschoolers with ASD showed lower compliance. That looks like a clash, but they tested ASD, not ID, and used parent commands, not play. Different kids, different task.
Dai et al. (2023) pushed the idea further. They trained peers to join play and minimally verbal kids with ASD+ID gained social play. Adding people and adding rules both help; you can mix them.
Why it matters
Next time you run social-skills groups, set up a short pretend script with clear roles and props. A kitchen set with waiter, cook, and customer cards beats a free-for-all bin of toys. You will see more planning, sharing, and self-checking from kids with or without ID in the same class.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
OBJECTIVE: This study has examined whether or not self-regulatory strategies vary depending on pretend play situations in 40 children with intellectual disability and 40 typically developing children. METHOD: Their cognitive, linguistic and individual symbolic play levels were assessed in order to match the children of the two groups. During two dyadic pretend play sessions (Itinerary, Creativity), their abilities in dyadic pretend play and in self-regulation were assessed by coding their behaviour via two validated grids. RESULTS: The results showed similar overall levels in dyadic pretend play in both groups but a lower involvement was observed in disabled children. Some specific deficits and strengths in self-regulatory strategies were highlighted in children with intellectual disability. In both groups, non-structured Creativity situation induced weaker abilities in pretend play, and better self-evaluation strategy than in the structured Itinerary situation. In both groups, positive links between specific self-regulation strategies (identification of objective, planning, self-regulated attention, self-motivation, self-evaluation) and specific dyadic pretend play abilities (involvement, roles, actions, objects, social participation) are more numerous and higher in the structured Itinerary situation than in the Creativity situation.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2012 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2011.01443.x