Investigating the Effectiveness of Physical Education on the Social Competency of Students with Mental Disability in Pre-professional Courses

Today, attention to the social competency of students with mental disability is so necessary. Physical education is so effective in improving social competency. The study examines the effectiveness of teaching physical education program on improvement of the social competence of students with intellectual disabilities.
This study is a quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest and control group. A total of 30 students intellectually disability 14 to 18 years old were selected by convenience sampling participated in this study. The subjects were divided randomly into two groups of 15 people (a test group and a control group). A questionnaire was used for social competence. The collected data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance.
The results showed that the mean social competence experimental group was significantly higher than the control group. Physical education as well as training programs on all subscales of social competence (cognitive, behavioral, emotional and mental set competence, motivation) was a significant positive effect
The physical education program improves the social competency in students with intellectual disability. Therefore, planning for physical education of the students is very important.