Effect of the Snake and Ladder Game on Behavior and OHI-S Index of Deaf Children

Abstract

Deafness in children is one of the obstacles in gaining knowledge about dental and oral health. It also has an impact on attitudes and behavior of maintaining dental health. Therefore, dental health education accompanied by the right tools is needed to help in conveying information to deaf children in order to ensure the message is received clearly. This research aims to determine the effect of dental health education on the behavior and index of dental and oral hygiene of deaf children by using snake and ladder game. Methods: A quasi-experimental method with a non-randomized control group pre and post-test design was used, while 123 students aged 10-12 years were taken as a sample from 3 Special Schools in the Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The variables measured were the behavior of maintaining dental health and the Oral Hygiene Index Simplifies (OHI-S). Afterward, data were analyzed using the Wilcoxon and the Mann-Whitney tests. Results: The results of the Wilcoxon test showed that there were significant differences in dental health maintenance behavior and the OHI-S index in the treatment group (p<0.05). While the Mann-Whitney test showed significant differences between the treatment and control groups (p<0.05). Conclusions: The snake and ladder game are able to improve dental and oral health maintenance behavior as well as reduce the OHI-S index in deaf children.