Status of liking of children of parents of children with mentally handicapped and difficulties in choosing toys

This descriptive study was carried out in Zeynep Kamil Maternity and Child Diseases Training and Research Hospital in Istanbul. The universe of the research was composed of parents with mentally handicapped children who applied to the hospital's health board in 2018 to get a report of children's retardation. The sampling was taken from parents of 120 mentally disabled children who agreed to participate in the study between 30 May 2018 and 31 ±December 2018. The average age of the mothers from the parents is X 35 = 35.58 ± 6.55, and the fathers' X̅ = 39.7 ± 6.34. 96.7% of parents are married and the majority (87.5%) are nuclear families. While the chronological age of 19.2% of children is 3 years or less, the mental (intelligence) age of 57.5% of children is 3 years or less. 88.3% of children have acquired the disease congenitally. It was observed that the parents' love of children was high. It has been determined that the parents who play with their children over 3 hours a day have a significantly higher score (p <0.05) than their parents who do not play any games. According to the findings, most of the parents (69.2%) pay attention to be safe and appropriate for the age of development when choosing toys for their children. 44.2% of the parents have difficulty in choosing toys, and reported that they do not have enough information (81.1%) about choosing a toy that is suitable for the development situation as a reason for difficulty. According to these findings, taking into account that parents have difficulties in choosing toys, parents who love their children spend more time with their children, it may be recommended to provide parents with appropriate counseling in choosing toys and spending more time with their children, and training on toy safety.