O Brincar nas práticas de saúde de terapeutas ocupacionais no Brasil

Abstract

Playing is a central occupation in a child's life as it constitutes a natural mediator of child development and must be guaranteed to all children regardless of their social, cultural or health condition. Occupational therapy traditionally uses play in its practices with children with different emphases. Thus, the aim of this study was to analyze the emphasis given to the therapeutic use of play by occupational therapists in health practices in Brazil, as well as to identify the benefits of this use for the assisted population. To this end, an integrative literature review was carried out using the Lilacs, Medline (access via Bireme) and Scielo databases, and in portals of specific national occupational therapy journals, using the descriptor "Occupational Therapy" with the Boolean operator " AND” combined with the descriptors “jokes and toys”, “games and toys” and with the free terms “play”, “jokes” and “toys”. Articles published from 2000 to 2020, in Portuguese, English and Spanish, whose authors were Brazilian occupational therapists, and reflected practices in Brazil, were included. After analyzing the titles, abstracts and full publications, the review consisted of 28 articles from which it was identified that playing is used under three emphases: as the objective of therapy; as a therapeutic resource and for the promotion of health and well-being. The therapeutic use of playing provided improvement in developmental skills, better therapist-child and child-family interaction, better hospitalization and treatment experience, in addition to contributing to the identification of health needs and the promotion of child health. It is concluded that despite the increase in publications on the subject over the 20 years researched, studies conducted in different regions of the country are necessary for a better understanding of the phenomenon at the national level.