Nursery Practice for Children with Disabilities Using "Warabeuta" :

A Case Study through Structural Analysis of Play

Abstract

This study based on observation of my nursery practice of playing Warabeuta, Japanese traditional children's songs, for children with disabilities. Warabeuta are songs sung as part of a game. First of all, I described the activities of an autistic boy in my nursery practice. Then I observed the reactions of the autistic child using the ideas of F. Koizumi and T. Kojima's Warabeuta music theory and K. Nishimura's structural analysis of play. The study shows the value of using Warabeuta as a means of giving children the satisfaction of playing together. The result reveals the original form Warabeuta play. The boy clearly enjoyed the singing and playing with the other children, and developed friends among the other children.