Effect of Storytelling Method on Social Skills in Children with Down Syndrome

Background and Purpose: Social skills are the important part of individual growth and the lack of it in a long term has a serious impact on the child. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of storytelling method on social skills in children with Down syndrome. The present study was a semi-experimental design with two experimental and control groups with pre-test and post-test. The Sample for study consisted of 22 students with Down syndrome aged 6 to 8 years old in Rasht in 2015-2016 selected by purposeful sampling method and randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups. Then Leiter International Performance Scale (1990) was performed on both groups. The experimental group received training in 8 sessions of 60 minutes, using storytelling techniques. To analyze the data, covariance analysis was used. The results showed that storytelling method improves social skills (Collaboration, assertiveness and self-control) in children with Down syndrome (P<0.01). The storytelling method improves linguistic and communication skills such as auditory accuracy, increased comprehension of meanings of words, ability to listen and speak That consequently Social skills are also positively affected. Thus The social skills of children with Down syndrome can be improved by using the storytelling method.