Journal of Exceptional Childre
Year:2020 | Volume:19 | Issue:4 |Papers Count:12

Objective: The study aim is to investigate the impact of computerized working memory training program on improving the math problem solving skills among the students with math learning difficulties. Methods: The research method is semi-experimental with pretest-posttest design and control group. Using multistage random sampling method and Among 50 fourth grade male students of fourth-grade, 30 students with math problems were selected and divided in to two equal experimental and control groups. befor and after the experiment ‘ Iran Key Math Diagnostic Tests’ was used. The experimental group received the program individually through computerized intervention programs( 20 sessions, each session lasted for 60 minutes). . Results: covariance analysis (ANCOVA) showed that there is a significant difference between math problem solving scores between experimet and control groups. Conclusions: The results of present research show that, computerized working memory training program can be used as an appropriate method for improvement math problem solving among the students with math learning difficulties.

Objective: The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of sand play therapy on social skills, anxiety and aggression in children with Down syndrome. Method: This is a quasi-experimental study with pre-test and post-test design and control group. The population of the study included all the children with Down syndrome who were under the protection of Kermanshah Welfare Organization in 2018. On the whole, 30 children with Down syndrome were selected by random sampling and were divided into two equal experimental and control groups (each group consisting of 15 children). The experimental group participated in 8 sessions, while the control group did not. To collect the research data, Social Skills Questionnaires (Matson, 1983), Children's Anxiety Questionnaire (Spence, 1999), and Aggression Questionnaire (Bass & Perry's aggression, 1992) were used. The data were analyzed using covariance analysis and SPSS-21. Results: The results showed that there is a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in the social skills scores and in each of the components including: proper social skills, inappropriate courage, impulsivity / rebellion, high self-confidence, and jealousy / 05/0> P). There was also a significant difference between the mean scores of aggression and anxiety in the two groups in the post-test (P> 0. 05). Conclusion: The results showed that sand play therapy accompanied by other behavioral therapies can be used to increase the social skills and decrease the negative emotions of children with Down syndrome.

Objective: The present study is to investigate the child-centered mindfulness therapy on the aggression and cortisol level after drug therapy in the children with cancer. Method: The research method is quasi-experimental with pretest, posttest, control group and two-month follow-up design. The population was all the children having cancer in Isfahan in 2018 and referred to Omid Treatment Center to receive drug therapy. The sample was 30 children with cancer who were selected using convenience sampling method and randomly placed into experimental and control groups (15 children in experimental and 15 ones in the control group). The experimental group received the therapeutic interventions related to child-centered mindfulness for two-and-a half months through 60-minute sessions which took place once a week, but the control group didn’ t receive any psychological intervention during the study. Then the subjects in both groups took the posttest. The follow-up stage was administered after two months. The instruments included Children’ s Aggression Questionnaire (Shahim, 2007) and Cortisol Level Test. The data analysis was done using descriptive statistics and ANOVA with repeated measurement. Findings: The results showed that child-centered mindfulness therapy has a significant effect on the aggression and the cortisol level after the children with cancer took the drug therapy (p<0. 001) in a way that this treatment could decrease the aggression and the cortisol level of the children with cancer. Conclusion: According to the findings of the present study it can be concluded that mindfulness therapy can be used as an efficient treatment to decrease the children’ s aggression and the cortisol level in the children with cancer by using the techniques such as thinking, emotions and mindful behavior.

Objective: The purpose of present study was evaluating efficacy of attachment based parent training program on social cognition in adolescents with high function autism. Method: The method of study was semi-experimental in pretest-posttest with unequal groups design. The statistical population of the study included all mothers and their autistic adolescents who referred to 5 mental health centers in Tehran during the six last months of 1396. 43 mother-child couples were selected through the accessible sampling method and then were randomly assigned into two experimental (21) and control (22 individuals) groups. Attachmentbased program performed in mothers in experimental group once a week, mothers in control group were located in waiting list. Research tools were reading mind in the eyes test (affective theory of mind) and Sally– Anne test (cognitive theory of mind) that completed by adolescent in pretest and posttest stages. Results: results show that attachment based parent training program has resulted in increasing affective theory of mind in adolescent with autism (p<0. 009, F=7. 25) but it hasn’ t have any effects on cognitive theory of mind (p<0. 46, F=0. 53). Discussion: The main reasons for the effectiveness of the attachment-based program on affective theory of mind can be attributed to the effects of this program on promoting of psychological awareness of the mother and child of each other.

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the performance of monolingual, bilingual children and children with learning disabilities in working memory. Method: The research was administered with an Ex post facto design. Participants included 60 monolingual, 34 people with learning disabilities and 62 bilinguals. Which completed the Wechsler Intelligence Scale and the Wechsler test for preschool children. Data were analyzed using univariate variance analysis. Result: The findings showed that there was a significant difference between bilingual, monolingual children and children with learning disorder in working memory scores. So that bilingual children had better functioning of memory than monolingual children and learning disabilities. Conclusion: Second language learning comes with more powerful memory functions.

Objective:The study aims to determine the effectiveness of Arsh leisure time program on the cognitive capacity and communication skills of children with intellectual disability,Methods:The research is a quasi-experimental study with pre-test,post-test design and control group,The participants were 30 female children with intellectual disability from 13 to 15 years old who were studying in Isfahan’s Exceptional Schools,They were selected randomly and were divided into experimental and control groups,each group consisting of 15 children,The experimental group received 16 sessions of Arsh leisure time program and the control group did not,The instruments were Wechsler intelligence scale for children (2003) and Communication Skills Questionnaire (1990),The data were analyzed with multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) test using the 23th version of SPSS,Findings:The results showed that Arsh leisure time program had a significant effect on the cognitive capacity and communication skills of subjects (P<0,0001),Conclusion:Arsh leisure time program can improve the cognitive capacity and communication skills of children with intellectual disability,So using the leisure time program for these children is of high importance,

Objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of early maladaptive schemas, behavioral activation-inhibition system and cognitive emotion regulation strategies in predicting the social anxiety within the students with learning disorder. Method: The research method was descriptive and correlational. The population was all the students referring to Learning Disorder Center in Bushehr. From this, 232 students was selected using available sampling method. The research instruments consisted of Young Schema (1999), Behavioral Activation-Inhibition Systems (Carver & White, 1994), Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies (Garnefski, Kraaij & Spinhoven, 2002) and Social Anxiety (Connor, Davidson, Churchill, Sherweed & Foa, 2000) Questionnaires. To analyze the data, regression analysis was used. Results: The results showed that early maladaptive schemas, behavioral activation-inhibition system and cognitive emotion regulation strategies had some role in predicting the social anxiety within the students with learning disorder. Conclusion: Regarding the role of the early maladaptive schemas, behavioral activationinhibition system and cognitive emotion regulation in revealing and maintaining the social anxiety within the students with learning disorder, we can prevent the social anxiety disorder to appear in these students, if we can identify them.

Objective: The purpose of is to investigate the effectiveness of rebound therapy on improving perceptual-visual coordination and social development of students with learning disabilities. Method: This is an applied research. To do this, the semi-experimental method was used using pre-test and post-test with the control group. The population was all the students with a diagnosis of learning disabilities who received the necessary interventions at Dezful Education and Rehabilitation Center for Learning Disorders. The sample included 30 students with learning disabilities in Dezful. They were selected from the above-mentioned center and randomly divided into experimental and control groups (each group consisting of 15 subjects). To collect data, the Visual Critical Scale of the Gastalt and the Social Development of Thailand was used. The experimental group received rehabilitation training for 8 weeks but control group did not receive any intervention. Findings: The results covariance analysis (MANCOVA) showed that rehabilitation training has an impact on perceptual visual coordination and social development and can increase visual-perceptual coordination and social development in students with learning disabilities. Conclusion: These results have some important implication for treatment of learning disabilities, so this educational program can be used as an interventional method at schools and rehabilitation centers.

Objectives: Regarding the impact of hearing loss on language development and metalinguistic skill and being language development different from metalinguistic skill in bilingual children, studying of these skills in different bilingual children and comparing them with normal bilingual children can help us understand more about language development in children and the factors involved in it. The present study aims at Investigating and Comparing linguistic and metalinguistic skills of bilingual (Azari-Persian) children with cochlear implant and their normal hearing peers. Method: The present follow-up study was conducted on six children with cochlear implant and six normal hearing peers that was randomly selected from preschool students of Zanjan city in the school year of 97-98. We compared these children in Mean Length of Utterance, lexical richness, lexical awareness and syntactic awareness. To investigate language development, continuous speech, and to investigate metalinguistic awareness, lexical awareness (including content and structural analysis of word definition) and syntactic awareness tests was used. Results: Data analysis revealed that developing language and metalinguistic skills in bilingual preschool children with hearing loss in Azari-Persian were delayed. (P <0. 05). But in Persian language, of the indices of language growth, only the Mean Length of utterance (mean number of morphemes per word) is delayed (P <0. 05). There was no significant difference in any of the content and structural aspects of word definition in hearing loss children (P>0. 05). Conclusion: The low ability level of subjects’ in metalinguistic skills in Azari language can be ascribed to the formal teaching of Persian in schools. In addition, Spearman's correlation coefficient indicated that there is a positive and significant correlation between indices of language growth, lexical awareness of bilingual (Azari-Persian) children with hearing loss and normal hearing peers in both Persian and Azari.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of integrated inclusive education and its promotion strategies for the students with special needs in Zanjan and to find the relationship of some factors with their attitudes. Method: This study is an applied one, and descriptive-survey and correlational method was used to collect the data. The population consisted of 95 students with special needs who were studying with normal students in ordinary schools. Using Krejcie and Morgan table, 78 people were randomly selected with stratified sampling method based on the type of disability, and their integrated teachers' viewpoints were studied regarding integrated inclusive education program. To collect the data, the questionnaire was used. The questionnaire was designed based on the goals of integrated inclusive education and its content and face validity was confirmed by experts; its overall reliability was 90%. Results: The data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings showed that was higher than the hypothesized mean. The variables level, base, severity and type of disability didn’ t have a significant relationship in achieving the goals of integrated inclusive education, but the variables gender, teachers' attitude towards integrated inclusive education and the role of interface teacher had a significant relationship in achieving the goals of integrated inclusive education, among which the teachers' attitude had also a predictable capability. Conclusion: According to the findings, from integrated teachers' viewpoints, integrated inclusive education program has been effective and thestrategies such as changing teachers' attitude towards integrated inclusive education, the use of interface teachers, providing compensatory education by teachers, decreasing the number of students in the classroom, and equipping schools with appropriate facilities can promote integrated inclusive education.