The Effectiveness of Family-Centered Training based on Social Competence on Social Skills of Children with Intellectual Disability

The aim of the present research was to determine the effectiveness of family- centered training based on social competence on social skills of children with intellectual disability.
This research is a quasi-experimental study by pre-test, post-test design and control group. The population of this study consists of 7-12 years old male children with intellectual disability and their parents in Shiraz in 2016. Sample groups included 40 male children with intellectual disability and their parents who were selected by simple random method from exceptional schools. Participants were divided into two groups (experimental and control group), each of which was consisted of 20 children, 20 mothers and 12 fathers. Experimental group received Family-centered training based on social competence in 12 sessions while control group did not. The instrument was social skills of children scale of Matson (1983). The obtained data were statistically analyzed by MANCOVA using SPSS (version 16).
The results findings showed that experimental and control groups had significant difference at least in one of subscales of the social skills of children scale (P It can be concluded that Family-centered training based on social competence has led to the improvement of social skills in children with intellectual disability. It is suggested that specialists improve social skills of children with intellectual disability by using the Family-centered training program based on social competence.