Effect of Regular Exercise on Social Interactions in Children with Intellectual Disability

  The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of regular exercise on the social interactions of educable mentally retarded children aged 8 to 14 years old in Shiraz. In the currentstudy, from among 75 educable mentally retarded students, 24 patients were randomly selected and assigned to two experimental (six boys, six daughters) and control (six boyd, six girls) groups. To assess their social interactions, Dadkhah Social Interactions questionnaire was used. The design chosen was quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test and a control group. K-S test was run to determine the normal distribution of data and Levin test and covariance analysis were used to compare the means. Findings showed that after a period of regular exercise, social interactions of these children improved dramatically (P<0/05). According to the results, it can be concluded that regular exercise (Dunn and fait, 2010) is effective in increasing the social interaction of children with intellectual disability and, by its very nature, it can have a positive effect on social interactions, as a very important psychological component.