The effect of social behaviors training on improvement of the social skills of adolescents with intellectual disability

The purpose of the present research was to investigation of the effectiveness of social behaviors training on improvement of the social skills of 12-14 years old girl adolescents with intellectual disability in Mazandaran province. In this semi-experimental study with pretest and posttest design with control group، were selected fourty girls adolescents with intellectual disablity of 14-18 years old through multi–stage cluster sampling method. Subjects allocated randomly to two groups (experimental and control) and each group consist of 20 individuals. Experimental group attended in social behaviors training in the 8 sessions lasting for 90 minutes، but the control group did not receive any of instruction. The instruments consist of Revan intelligence test and Matson’s social skills scales. The data analysis was done by using MANCOVA. The findings of this research showed that there was a significantly increase in the mean scores of social skills (P<0. 05). Also، mean scores of all of the social skills subscales (appropreate social skills، asocial behaviors، impulsive & aggression، superiority & high self-confident and relation with peers) significantly increase on the post interventional stage in experimental group (P<0. 05). The social behaviors training program lead to improve social skills and their subscules on adolescents with intellectual disability. Therefore، emphasized on social behaviors training for adolescents with intellectual disability.