Effectiveness of group play therapy techniques on anxiety sensitivity, helplessness and resiliency in students with learning disabilities

The aim of this study was to investigate of the effectiveness of group play therapy techniques on anxiety sensitivity, helplessness and resiliency in students with learning disabilities.

This study was semi-experimental pre-test, post-test, and follow-up with control and experimental group. The statistical population consisted of 253 students with learning disabilities who had been referred to the Center for Learning Disabilities of Boushehr province’s Department of Education in 2018-2019 school year. Of these, using convenience sampling and considering the requirements of the research project based on Colorado Learning Difficulties Questionnaire (2011), Wechsler Intelligence Scale of Children, the fifth Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM-5), 40 students were selected and assigned to an experimental group and a control group. The measurement tools were Anxiety Sensitivity Questionnaire (1986), Learned Helplessness Questionnaire (1988) and Connor-Davidson Resiliency Scale (2003). The experimental group received 12 sessions (45 minutes each) of group training. For statistical data analysis, mixed variance analysis with repeated measures design is used.

Findings showed that group play therapy techniques training has a significant effect on anxiety sensitivity, helplessness and resiliency and this effect remains unchanged in the two-month follow-up phase (P<0.05).

Finally, we may conclude that group play therapy techniques training, as an effective and functional intervention, could be used to improve anxiety sensitivity, helplessness and resiliency of students with dyscalculia.