The Effectiveness of Reality Therapy Group Counseling on Academic Self-Concept in Students with Specific Learning Disorder

The present study was an effort to investigate the effectiveness of reality therapy group counseling on academic self-concept of students with specific learning disorder. To this end, this study adopted a pre-test/post-test/follow-up semi-experimental design. Thirty female primary school fifth graders took part in this study, which was carried out in 2016-17 academic year in Babolsar, Iran. Based on the results of the Colorado Learning Difficulties Questionnaire (CLDQ) and the participants' IQ scores, 15 participants were randomly assigned to the experimental group and 15 to the control group. The experimental group went through reality therapy group counseling for 8 sessions. The instruments used in the current study included the CLDQ, the second edition of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, and the Academic Self-Concept Inventory. Adopting a mixed analysis of variance, the data were analyzed using SPSS-22 software. The findings of the study revealed that as a result of the reality therapy group counseling, the experimental group's academic self-concept post-test and follow-up scores were significantly higher than their control group counterpart (p < 0.05). Based on the findings of the present study, it is suggested that the reality therapy group counseling be used to prevent academic problems for students with specific learning disorder.