Discussion Week 1

Example for the discussion week 1

Student Post Example:

The article I choose for this week is integrated play with social engagement and symbolic play to promote children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to enhance their social skills and use symbolic play as the use of their emotions in these unfamiliar settings. With the 12-week long quantitative analysis of Integrated Play Groups (IPG), the researchers extended the knowledge of how the IPG model can be beneficial to children with ASD (Wolfberg, DeWitt, Young, Nguyen, 2015). The problem in this article that the researchers are solving is the benefits of the IPG model and if it is still viable in today’s time. The researchers are wanting to help children with ASD in a way that expresses their emotions as well as evolving their social skills. 

From my understanding of independent and dependent variables, I located the independent variable is the Autism Spectrum Disorder and dependent variables as the social engagement and symbolic play from the children. The dependent variable is described as the variable that is affected by the independent variable while the independent variable is analyzed to find out if it causes the changes to the dependent variable (Dietz, Kalof, 2009, pp. 4). In the Y=f(X) + E notation, it would be Social Engagement= f(ASD) + Error and Symbolic Play= f(ASD) + Error. Since the researchers are using two different variables there would need to be different equations for these. 

The error in this article would be the multiple issues with children not wanting to be social engaging or being able to use symbolic play. ASD would not be the only factor in children having these issues or if this would be beneficial for a child without this disorder as well. Other cognitive disabilities could play a role as well as social discrepancies between other children.  

Dietz, T., & Kalof, L. (2009). Introduction to social statistics: The logic of statistical reasoning. West Sussex, United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell. 

Wolfberg, P., DeWitt, M., Young, G. S., Nguyen, T. (2015). Integrated play groups: Promoting symbolic play and social engagement with typical peers in children with ASD across settings. Journal of Autism Developmental Disorder, 45(1), 830-845. doi: 10.1007/s10803-014-2245-0