JOURNAL OF EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN EMPOWERMENT
Year:2018 | Volume:9 | Issue:2 |Papers Count:10

The aim of present study was to investigate the effectiveness of Applied Behavioral Analysis on social skills development of children with autism spectrum disorder. The study was a quasi-experimental research with a pre-test-post-test-follow-up with control group. A sample of 30 children with the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder in Kermanshah is selected using available sampling method, who were randomly assigned to experiment and control groups of 15. The experiment group received social skills training program for 8 months using applied behavioral analysis method. The research tool was Winelend Social Growth Scale and the data were analyzed using SPSS19. The findings showed that there is a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores (eight month intervals) and the follow-up (one month interval) of the experiment group in social skill growth (p<0/01). The results of this study show that the therapeutic method of applied behavioral analysis is effective for improving the social skills of children with autism spectrum disorder. Therefore, the implementation of this therapeutic approach is recommended along with the rest of the treatments.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of parent-based Incredible Years’ Cognitive Program on behavioral problems of children with behavioral disorder in Isfahan city. The present research was a semi-experimental study with pre-test, post-test design and control group. The participants were 30 mothers of children with behavioral disorder from Amirkabir Elementary School in Isfahan city who were selected using convenient sampling method. Subjects were assigned to experimental and control groups randomly, each group consisting of 15 mothers. The experiment group members participated in 12 sessions of Incredible Years’ Cognitive Program, while the control group did not receive the intervention. The tool used was Rutter’ s Child Problem Behaviors Questionnaire for parents (1975). Multivariate analysis of covariance was done by SPSS (version 23) for analyzing the data. The results showed that Incredible Years’ Cognitive Program training had a significant effect on the behavioral problems and all subscales (aggression and hyperactivity, anxiety and depression, social maladjustment, antisocial behaviors, attention shortage) of children with behavioral disorders (P<0. 001). Incredible Years’ Cognitive Program training improved the behavioral problems of children with behavioral disorder. In other words, applying this training program has been associated with effective and positive outcomes. Therefore, paying attention to the Incredible Years’ Cognitive Program is essential and planning for providing training of this type of cognitive program for mothers of children with behavioral disorder is of particular importance. Keywords

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of child-centered game therapy on reducing the externalized problems of students. The present study was a quasi-experimental study with pre-test and post-test design with control group. The research population consisted of all 7-9 years-old students who were referred to counseling centers in Tehran due to behavioral problems and had been diagnosed in the evaluations with externalized problems. Using available sampling, 30 students who were diagnosed with behavioral problems during diagnostic interview with their parents, were evaluated by the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). From among these students, 10 were selected who scored higher than the cut score as sample group. Finally, 5 of them were randomly assigned to the experiment group and 5 were assigned to the control group. Experiment group received 16 sessions of child-centered play therapy, while the control group did not receive any intervention. After the intervention, the two groups were evaluated again using the Child Behavioral Checklist (CBCL) as the post-test. Data were analyzed by analysis of covariance (ANCOVA (statistical model. Findings showed that child-centered play therapy reduces externalizing problems of students (P<0. 01). According to the results of this study, it can be concluded that child-centered play therapy has been effective and this intervention can be used to reduce the externalizing behavioral problems.

The present research aimed to examine the effectiveness of training social skills on self-esteem of students with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The study was quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest design and control group. The statistical population sonsisted of 8 to 12 years old boys in Tehran during 2013-2014 semester who had attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. A number of 32 of these students were chosen by convenience sampling method and were assigned randomly to experiment and control groups (16 in each). The tools used were Child Behavior Checklist (Achenboach/1978) and Cooper-Smith Self-esteem Inventory (1967). The experiment group was trained using the Social Skills Program in 10 sessions (each lasted one hour). The data were analyzed by analysis of covariance using SPSS software. The results showed that the self-esteem of students with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder was increased significantly in exprement group in comparison with the control group (P= 0. 01) and this effect lasted for one month after intervention. It is concluded that teaching social skills to students with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder can enhance their self-esteem Therefore, preparing schedueled social skills programs and including this program in training programs of these children as complementary education can be useful.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of training and attention exercises on spelling ability and academic performance of students with learning disabilities. The present study was a semi-experimental study with pre-test, post-test and follow-up dwsign and control group, and statistical population consisted of third-grade female students of Shahriyar and Malard, the number of which was 23839 during academic year 96-95. The students were selected using random cluster sampling method from 4 districts, from which Malard and Shahriar districts were chosen, from among 260 schools of these 2 districts, Hajia Noori, Maryam and Hazrat Zaynab schools were selected. Finally, from each school, two classes were chosen and after screening the students by Iowa Raven Test, and teacher-made spelling test 30 students were chosen and assigned to two groups of 15 girls. In addition, for evaluating the educational performance, teacher-made educational performance test was utilized. The students participated in Fletcher’ s 2007 training program twice a week during ten sessions of 45 minutes. To analyze the data, mixed variance analysis with repeated measurements was used. Results showed the effectiveness of attention teaching and exercises on improving the ability of spelling (P=0. 0001, F=21. 19) and academic performance in students with learning disabilities (F=22. 67, P=0. 001). Since attention teaching and exercises improves spelling ability and educational performance, teachers can use this method in the schools to prevent spelling problems and decline in educational performance.

The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between mother-child relationship and symptoms of anxiety disorders in deaf and hard-of-hearing children. The research method was correlation analysis. From among the mothers of children with hearing problems in Brojerd, Malayer, Toyserkan and Nahavand, 69 mothers (36 mothers of deaf and 33 mothers of hard-of-hearing) participated in study uusing census method. The Spence's Children Anxiety Scale-Parent Version (1992) and Child-Parent Relationship Scale (1998) were used for data collection and Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA), Pearson correlation coefficient and stepwise regression was used for data analysis. Results: Results indicated that 15. 15% of deaf children, and 8. 33% of hard-of-hearing children had symptoms of anxiety disorders. Results of MANOVA indicated that symptoms of anxiety disorders and dimensions of mother-child relationship didn’ t differ between deaf and hard-f-hearing children; but social anxiety in hard-of-hearing children and fear of physical injury in deaf children were higher. Results of Pierson correlation coefficient showed that the closeness of mother-child relationship was negatively and conflict in mother-child relationship was positively correlated with anxiety disorders. According to regression analysis, the closeness of mother-child relationship negatively predicted symptoms of anxiety disorders. According to the results, teaching mother-child relationship to mothers of children with hearing problems is suggested to decrease the symptoms of anxiety disorders among these children.

The present study was conducted in order to investigate the effectiveness of parent-child relationship-oriented group interventions on symptoms reduction in 6-11 years old children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. In a quasi-experimental study using pre-test and post-test design with three experimental groups of 1. drug therapy, 2. combined (drug therapy and family-oriented intervention) and 3. family-oriented intervention, mothers of 30 children with ADHD disorder were randomly selected from the educational districts, schools and students of Tehran using multi-stage cluster sampling method, and were placed in three groups. The combined and family-oriented groups were trained in a parent-child relationship group for 10 sessions and the drug therapy group received only medication. Subjects were assessed by Canners’ Parenting Scale in two stages (before intervention and after intervention). Data were analyzed using covariance analysis. The results of the present study showed that the implementation of a parent-child-based educational program resulted in a significant reduction in symptoms of ADHD among children in both the combined and family-oriented group. Parent-child relationship education is effective in symptoms reduction among children with ADHD. Therefore, it is suggested that therapists use this method to help children of this particular group.

The purpose of the present study was designing and studying effectiveness of family-based training program on marital satisfaction and mental health of mothers of gifted girls. Study method was quasi-experimental with pre-test, post-test and follow up design with control group. The study population included mothers of gifted girls. Subjects were selected by cluster random sampling method, so that 30 mothers of gifted girls participated in the study. Subjects were divided into two groups randomly (experiment and control group), each of which consisted of 15 subjects. Experiment group received 12 sessions of family based training program each lasting for 90 minutes, while control group did not receive any intervention. The tools of present research were Afrooz Marital Satisfaction Scale (2010) and Goldberg & Hiller General Health Questionnaire (1979). Data were analyzed using mixed variance analysis. The findings showed that there was significant decrease in mental health and subscales mean scores (somatic symptoms, anxiety, social dysfunction, depression) and increase in marital satisfaction mean scores of experiment group in the post-test in comparison with control group (P<0. 0001). Also, significant difference among scores in post-test and follow up was not detected (P>0. 05). Family-based training program led to improvement of the marital satisfaction and mental health of mothers of gifted girls. Therefore, paying attention to the variables such as marital satisfaction and mental health are essential, and planning for providing family-based training program for this population is of particular importance.

Present study was aimed to investigate the effectiveness of prospective memory-based cognitive rehabilitation program on behavioral problems and working memory in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The present research was a semi-experimental study with pre-test, post-test design and control group. The participants were 32 girls with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder from schools in Kermanshah city who were chosen using convenient sampling method. Subjects were divided into experiment and control groups, each group consisting of 16 children. The experiment group received 18 sessions of prospective memory-based cognitive rehabilitation program, while the control group did not receive any training. The research tools were Rutter’ s Child Behavior Questionnaire (1975) and Arjmandnia’ s Working Memory Test Battery for Children (2017). Data were analyzed by MANCOVA. The results showed that prospective memory-based cognitive rehabilitation program had a significant effect on the behavioral problems and working memory of participants (P<0. 0001). According to the findings, of prospective memory-based cognitive rehabilitation program improves behavioral problems and working memory in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. So, this program can be used to improve behavioral problems and working memory of these children, and planning for providing prospective memory-based cognitive rehabilitation program for them has particular importance

The aim of this study was to design and construct a social animation program for children with autism disorders and its effectiveness on communication and social skills of these children. The present study was a quasi-experimental study with control group and pre-test and post-test design. The statistical population included all children with autism spectrum disorder in Tehran, from among which 16 boys with autism in the age range of 5 to 10 years old were selected by convenience sampling method and then randomly assigned into two experiment and control groups. Then, the children of the experiment group participated in 30 one hour sessions, three days a week including social animation program, which in addition to animation, included the use of finger and hand puppets, puzzles, cartoon illustrations, emotional masks, and family-focused games. Parents in both groups responded to the Autism Assessment Evaluation (ATEC) (Rimland & Adelsen, 2011) before and after intervention. To analyze the data, multivariate covariance analysis and SPSS-21 software was used. The scores of the experiment group in the post-test stage showed a significant decrease in all test subscales (communication, social, cognitive, and repetitive and stereotypical behaviors) compared to pretest, and also there is a significant difference between the two groups in all test subscales (P<0. 001). It can be concluded that reducing the scores in the subscales of the the Autism Assessment Evaluation is due to improvement in the performance of these children. The results show that the above program is effective in improving the communication and social skills of children with autism spectrum disorder.