The Effectiveness of Parent- centered Intervention Based on Localized Play Therapy Model on Behavioral Problems of Intellectual Disability Children 5 to 7 years

Behavioral and emotional problems are one of the most common psychological problems in childhood and adolescence. Evidence suggests that behavioral problems are more prevalent among intellectual disability children than normal children. Therefore, the present study aimed to determine the effectiveness of a parent-centered intervention based on localized play therapy on behavioral problems of 5-7 years old intellectual disability children. This study was experimental with pretest-posttest design and follow-up with control group. The statistical population consisted of 128 educable intellectual disability children who were educated in special centers in Lordegan in 1397. Thirty people were selected randomly and assigned to two groups of 15 (experimental and control). Rutter Behavioral Problems Questionnaire was administered to two groups as pre-test. Then, the experimental group's parents received a 12-session localized game therapy intervention and the parents of the control group did not receive the intervention. At the end of the intervention period and 3 months later, Rutter's Behavioral Problems Test was again administered to the two groups as posttest and follow up, respectively. Data were analyzed using ANOVA with repeated measures. Results showed that there was a statistically significant difference between the performance of the two experimental and control groups in the rate of behavioral problems (p <0.001). Therefore, it can be concluded that the localized play therapy intervention program has been effective in reducing the behavioral problems of intellectual disability children and the survival of the intervention program remained after 3 month.