Investigation of Naturalistic Teaching-Based Family Education Program (DOTAP) in the development of play skills of children with intellectual disabilities: A case study

Purpose: The aim of the study was to examine the Naturalistic Teaching-Based Family Education Program (DOTAP) in the development of play skills of three-six year old children with intellectual disability. Method: This study is a case study. A five-year-old male child with intellectual disability and his mother constituted the study group. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected through family information forms, observations, video recordings, Parent Behavior Rating Scale and Play Behavior Scale for 36-71 Month-old Children. The qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis. In line with these analyzes, three main themes and 18 sub-themes were obtained. The quantitative data obtained were explained descriptively. Results: It was found that the Naturalistic Teaching-Based Family Education Program contributed positively to the display of age-appropriate play skills of the 3-6-year-old child with intellectual disability. It was observed that after the Naturalistic Teaching-Based Family Education Program, the child with intellectual disability increased the variety of play, the duration of play, the variety of people he requested to play with, and gained parallel play and social play behaviors. It was observed that the child gained the behaviors of initiating, continuing and ending play activities. Another finding was that the mother's use of naturalistic teaching methods in teaching play skills to her child started after the Naturalistic Teaching-Based Family Education Program. It was observed that the mother started to use natural teaching methods such as modeling, offering options, waiting period teaching and cues after the program. The final finding of the study was that the Naturalistic Teaching-Based Family Education Program contributed positively to the interaction between the child and the mother. After the Naturalistic Teaching-Based Family Education Program, the mother started to use qualified adult behaviors effectively and appropriately, and the child was observed to gain the behaviors of initiating, maintaining, terminating and accepting the interaction. Conclusion and Suggestions: The findings obtained showed that the development and implementation of the Naturalistic Instruction-Based Family Education Program could be carried out by making adaptations, various behavioral and teaching problems were experienced during the implementation and the implementation was continued by taking appropriate measures for these problems, the Naturalistic Instruction-Based Family Education Program contributed to increases in the knowledge and skills of the mother during the implementation, and at the same time, various developments were seen in the mother, the Naturalistic Instruction-Based Family Education Program made important contributions to the child's play development and the mother's opinions were that the program was a program that should be implemented by paying attention to certain elements. In this direction, it is possible to say that the Naturalistic Teaching-Based Family Education Program contributes to the display of age-appropriate play skills of the five-year-old child with intellectual disability, is a useful application in teaching natural teaching methods to the mother, and contributes to the interaction between mother and child. For future research and applications, it is suggested that research can be conducted to determine the effect of the Naturalistic Teaching-Based Family Education Program on different skills, play skills of children with intellectual disabilities in different age groups, and different types of disabilities.