Application of Drill Play Method in Receptive Language Disorders of Children with Down Syndrome: A Single Case Study

Abstract

Background: Down syndrome is a chromosomal abnormality that occurs during the prenatal period. This condition causes a child to experience several disorders, one of which is receptive language disorder or understanding. This receptive language disorder can occur due to short-term memory impairment. Seeing this, an intervention is needed to optimise the receptive language skills of children with Down syndrome.
Purpose: This study aims to determine the effectiveness of the application of the drill play method in improving the receptive language skills of children with Down syndrome.
Method: using a single subject experiment, using a one group pretest-posttest design. The research subject was a girl with Down syndrome aged two years and three months and had receptive language disorder. Data collection was done through interviews with the client's parents, direct observation of the client, tests, and document studies. Speech therapy was conducted for 10 meetings with the drill play method which emphasises repetition of exercises for client's receptive language understanding. Perceptual assessment by comparing word-level receptive language skills before and after therapy.
Results: There was no improvement in word-level receptive language skills.
Conclusion: the application of the drill play method in receptive disorders of children with down syndrome has not increased due to the lack of therapy sessions conducted and the provision of material that is less familiar to the client's daily life.
Keywords: down syndrome, receptive language disorder, drill play method.