Impact du jeu sur le développement cognitif des sujets déficients intellectuels : cas de l’infirmité motrice d’origine cérébrale

Abstract

The Motor Infirmity of Cerebral Origin (MICO) is a pathology that permanently handicaps and affects children because it is non-evolving. It affects 3.24 children per 1,000 births worldwide, and 0.6 per cent of children aged 0-14 in Cameroon. The observation made in our various internship sites is that children living with this disability play very little, they are constantly withdrawn on themselves, certainly as a result of the fact that they are victims of a double disability which affects their motor and cognitive capacity, which prevents them from moving freely. We therefore thought that stimulating them through play could help them to be more active and autonomous. All of which led us to the formulation of the research topic: "Impact of play on the cognitive development of subjects with intellectual disabilities. The case of subjects living with Motor Infirmity of Cerebral Origin". The problem posed by this study is the role of play in the cognitive development of children with cerebral palsy. The research question was formulated as follows: how do play factors contribute to the cognitive development of children with cerebral palsy? Based on the theory of play and cognitive development, we put forward the hypothesis that play contributes to the cognitive development of people with cerebral palsy. The aim of our research was to understand how play factors contribute to the cognitive development of subjects living with cerebral palsy. To achieve this objective, we collected data from three participants aged between six and seven at the Etoug-Ebé rehabilitation centre for disabled people. We used the semi-directive interview method for data collection, following an interview guide. During various work sessions with participants, we used toys with different shapes and colours (green, red, yellow, blue, etc.) to help them identify the different colours and facilitate their understanding. The results obtained after analyzing and interpreting the data collected showed that games, whether rules-based, sensory-motor or symbolic, all have an impact on the cognitive development of subjects living with cerebral palsy.