Journal of Exceptional Childre
Year:2007 | Volume:7 | Issue:1 (23)|Papers Count:12

Objective: The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of self-control training on improvement of social skills in students with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Method: A pretest-posttest control group design was chosen for the study and follow up data was gathered. The sample consisted of twenty male students attending primary school drawn from one of the schools in district six of the Education Area of Tehran, Iran during the academic year of 2004-2005.  This sample was divided into two groups of experimental and control, and the treatment was assigned randomly to one of these groups. Pretest and posttest was administered on both groups and the self-control package was introduced to the experimental group during a month.  Analysis of data was accomplished by utilization of repeated measures. Results: The results indicated that self-control training procedures were significantly effective in improving social skills in students with ADHD. Follow up data also revealed that treatment gains were maintained after a month. Conclusion: These results suggested that teaching self control techniques to students with ADHD can enhance their social skills.

Objective: The ability to perceive that people have mental states such as thoughts, tendencies and beliefs, which might be different from ours or the fact, is known as the theory of mind. The present research aimed to study the development of theory of mind in deaf children, regarding the impacts of communication modes utilized by the parents, due to their hearing condition. It also studied the impacts of a low verbal false belief task (using a mute movie) in comparison with verbal tasks on deaf children’s performance in theory of mind, considering their limitations in receptive language. Method: The study was accomplished through a cross- sectional, developmental research design. The sample comprised 200 hearing and deaf children, the former with hearing parents and the latter with hearing/deaf parents, whose age ranged 3-18 years. Results: The results revealed that the deaf children of the first generation - i.e., those who have hearing parents, are intensively delayed in achieving the theory of mind, as compared with hearing children. However, the delay of the second generation deaf children - i.e., the deaf children with deaf parents in theory of mind development is considerably less than that of the first generation deaf children. The deaf children of deaf parents completely compensated for their delay in achieving theory of mind as they grew up. The average age of theory of mind development in hearing, the first, and the second generation deaf children were 4;6 , 11;0 and 7;6 (years- months) respectively.  The low verbal false belief tasks left no significant impact on children’s responses, regardless of their hearing condition. Conclusion: This research indicated that deafness brings about a substantial delay in development of theory of mind in deaf children. Lack of sign language acquisition in its critical period may cause such delay. As a communication mode, sign language facilitates interaction between the child and caregivers; enabling him/her to achieve information about mental states and mental representation, which, serve as prerequisites of theory of mind.

Objective: This research examined factorial invariance of Youth Self-Report (YSR) form by using confirmatory factor analysis. Method: The form was administered on a sample of non-referred students (465 boys and 421 girls) which were selected from primary, secondary and high schools in Tehran. The sample was selected by means of multistage stratified random method. To estimate parameters and fitting an 8 correlated-syndrome model, weighted least square (WLS) function was used. The adequacy and fitting the model was assessed by RMSEA, SRMR, CFI, TLI, GFI, and AGFI indices. Results: The findings indicated that Achenbach’s 8 correlated factor models have a good fit with data. This finding provides evidence about internal construct validity of YSR. In addition, the results showed that none of syndromes overlapped completely, indicating that syndromes were empirically distinguishable and possessed discriminant validity. Conclusion: The results of this study supported fitting of the Achenbach model to our data and YSR could be used to assess emotional and behavioral problems of children aged 6-18 years.

Objective: This study compared auditory perception of the severely hearing impaired (70-90 dBHL) students of deaf and regular primary schools. Method: From both genders, 36 severely hearing impaired students were randomly recruited and matched in respect of other variables such as the onset of hearing impairment, age of diagnosis, parent's hearing, socioeconomic level of family, Intelligence and presence of additional disability conditions. All subjects were evaluated by otoscopy, pure tone and speech and immittance audiometer. Persian version of auditory perception test for Hearing Impaired (APT/HI) administered for all subjects. Results: Mean average of total scores of eight subtests of deaf schools in grade one – three respectively were 164.95, 170.3, 153.45 and in the regular schools were 181.45, 191.45 and 188.95 and analysis of variances (F = 42.58), (P = 0.0001) indicated that there were significant differences between the two groups of students (integrated/regular and deaf schools). Conclusion: The study displays that students who study in the regular schools have a better auditory perception than the comparison group in the deaf schools.

Objective: The purpose of this research was adaptation and standardization of Child Symptom Inventory-4 (CSI-4). Method: 1134 students aging  6 to 12 years old were selected from primary and secondary schools, and assigned in two groups: Normal, (N = 715 from mainstream schools of Tehran) and children with emotional and behavioral disorders (N = 419), from four hospitals in Tehran. The parents and teachers questionnaires of the inventory were filled by mothers and fathers. After studying the psychometric characteristics of the questionnaire (reliability by the internal correlation, internal consistency of coefficient) and validity (Content validity, criterion validity and differentiated validity, the results showed that internal consistency (for severe scores) for disorders of CSI-4 suggested correlation between items and the same underlying structure for scale items. Results: The comments and the positive judgments of professionals related to the content of CSI-4 with the tested area has validated content validity of the questionnaire as a tool for identification and screening the behavioral and emotional disorders in children. Comparing the scores of categories of questionnaire with the psychiatric-based diagnosis, criterion validity was assessed and high sensitivity and specificity of the most of the disorders of the questionnaire, particularly parents' questionnaire, suggests criterion validity of this instrument. The significant difference of the scores for normal and clinical groups, for all disorders, shows the differentiated validity. Finally, symptom severity scores for each category were translated to the standards scores and tables’ standards for parent’s and teacher’s questionnaires for both boys & girls were provided. Conclusion: This study supports that CSI-4 could be used to identify and screen children with emotional and behavioral disorders.

Objective: This article investigates the relationship between handwriting and kinesthesia in mentally retarded students. Method: 126 students with mental retardation (53 girls and 73 boys) aging 9 to 19 years old from two special schools in Shahr-e Rey participated in this survey. A handwriting checklist researcher-made along with the kinesthesia test of Ben bow were administered. Result: Correlation coefficient showed that there is a significant relationship between handwriting scores with kinesthesia scores (r = 0.305, p<0.001). Also, there is a negative relationship between kinesthesia and handwriting speed (r = -0.202, p<0.024). There was no significant relationship between kinesthesia with pencil grip, pressure on pencil and pressure on paper. Conclusion: This study provides evidence that use of kinesthetic exercises can be useful in developing handwriting legibility and speed in students with mental retardation.