EXAMINATION OF THE OPINIONS ABOUT PLAY OF MOTHERS WHO HAVE CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

Play is both fun and educational for children. Playing games contributes to children's cognitive, language, social, psychomotor and personality development. Play acts as a bridge between the child's imagination and the world, improving their interpersonal communication. In other words, children learn to empathize with others through play, to respect others, to realize their responsibilities in mutual relationships, to be patient, to have rules and to obey them. Play is a tool that contributes to all developmental areas for children with special needs who exhibit characteristics different from normal development characteristics. This research aims to examine the views of mothers with children with special needs on play. This research was conducted using the phenomenological method, one of the qualitative research methods. Data were obtained from a total of 15 mothers with children with special needs who participated in the research voluntarily through semi-structured interviews and were analyzed and interpreted. Validity and reliability studies were conducted on the obtained data. Although the majority of the mothers who participated in the research were aware of the importance of play for their children's development, they stated that their children encountered some problems in playing games.