Comparison of the effectiveness of teaching social cognitive skills with the cognitive behavioral game therapy on the social skills and social acceptance of children having behavioral disorders

The present study aims to compare the effectiveness of teaching social cognitive skills with the cognitive behavioral game therapy on the social skills and social acceptance of children having behavioral disorders in the city Karaj. This research was of a semi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest and a control group. The study population included all first and second grade primary school children in 1,2,3 district of city Karaj in 1395. 46 children were selected by convenient sampling method and were placed randomly into three groups (two experiment and one control). The first experiment group received 10 half an hour cognitive social skills sessions and the second the same numbers for cognitive behavioral game therapy ones. The questionnaire of child symptoms inventory, the scale of social skills and social acceptability questionnaire were used. The MANOVA revealed that there is no significant difference between the two groups regarding the intensity of the two effects, however both interventions namely cognitive social skills and cognitive behavioral game therapy contribute to the development of social skills and social acceptance in the two groups. Teaching cognitive social skills and cognitive behavioral game therapy seems to have a positive influence on the development of social skills and social acceptance in the children with behavioral disorders and could be applied.