Recreational Games to Strengthen Equilibrium and Oral Expression of Children with Down Syndrome María Dolores Velásquez Zambrano The Universidad Laica Eloy Alfaro de Manabí, Manta, Ecuador Jhonny Saulo Villafuerte The Universidad Laica Eloy Alfaro de Manabí, Manta, Ecuador Abstract—This research shows the contribution of recreative games on the improvement of oral expression and equilibrium in children with Down syndrome. Two are the cases of study chosen in this research project executed for 10 months in an elementary school located in Manta city, Ecuador. The researchers' team designed ad hoc., an educational intervention that articulates games and phonics for exercising the oral expression in Spanish and English languages. Besides, the participants train their static and dynamic equilibrium using the gamification model proposed by Delgado, Pérez, Mero, Villafuerte, and Macias in 2019. Pretest and posttest are applied to determine the participants’ oral expression and equilibrium progress. The results allow concluding that recreational games contribute to developing oral expression and equilibrium in children with Down syndrome. However, the early therapies, family involvement, children's personality, and their learning attitudes impact on the children's performances. Index Terms—basic education, down syndrome, equilibrium, inclusion, oral expression I. INTRODUCTION Language and motor functions have a positive correlation for the individual’s integral development (Ternera, 2010). However, it is possible to detect in children with Down syndrome a delay in their language development (Zampini, Salvi, and D'odorico, 2015), and equilibrium (Beltrán, 2016). Thus, children with DS have difficulties to pronounce sounds, words, and messages correctly; and to run and to keep their body balance as an effect of the muscle hypotonia (Wajuihian, 2019); situations that influence negatively on their social relationship and academic performance. Inclusive education is still in the process of consolidation globally, which requires the interaction of multidisciplinary professional teams to propose didactics and other operational procedures. Besides, it is urgent to understand inclusive education as the inclusion of all children (Qvortrup and Qvortrup, 2017). The Constitution of Ecuador (2008), allowed relevant advances for developing the inclusion in education in this country. However, most of the teachers feel, they are not well trained for the work in inclusive education (Corral, Villafuerte, and Bravo, 2015). Previous studies ratify the need to improve the dimensions: educational practice, and inclusive culture to consolidate the inclusive education in Ecuador. Static and dynamic equilibriums are related to psychomotor development to promote children's interaction with others during everyday lives (García and Martínez, 2016). Besides, gamification contributes to strengthening people's communicational competence (González, Solovieva, and Quintanar, 2014). Language is the way how people can express ideas and feelings to others for improving social interaction and integration with other members of a community (Chamizo and Rivera, 2013). In addition, language is the most common communicative way used for executing the teaching and learning process at every educational level. Thus, language provides to learners the opportunity to access to knowledge (Daunhauer, Fidler, and Will, 2014). The signature of international agreements about inclusive education (UNESCO, 2009), had increased the presence of students with physical, sensory, intellectual, or mental disabilities in regular primary and secondary schools during the last 10 years. However, the development of theories and procedures for the inclusive education is still a challenge of the Ecuadorian education system (Villafuerte, Pérez, Boyes, Mena, Pinoargote, Riera, Soledispa, and Delgado, 2018). Thus, this article authors expect to contribute to the strengthening of equilibrium and oral expression of children with Down Syndrome throughout an educational intervention based on recreational games. Besides, this work aims to support teachers and parents in the education of children with Down Syndrome. II. LITERATURE REVIEW A. Conceptualization of Equilibrium and Language ISSN 1799-2591 Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 10, No. 4, pp. 360-371, April 2020 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1004.03 © 2020 ACADEMY PUBLICATION