Early Detection of Students Suspected of Having Specific Disorders Learning and Designing Intervention (Executive Functions and Cognitive Processes)

The aim of this study was to develop a tool for early detection of students who were suspected of having specific learning disabilities. Also, an educational program for students’ intervention and education with learning disabilities was developed, and its validity was evaluated. In the first stage, a 75 questions inventory with yes and no responding scale was compiled and performed on 154 preschool girls and boys in the first and second districts of Hamadan in the academic year of 2020. The factor structure of the questionnaire was examined through confirmatory factor analysis by LISREL software. In the second stage, the final questionnaire was administered to the experimental group as a pre-test, which included twenty 6-year-old preschool students with learning disabilities. After twelve sessions of training on executive functions and cognitive processes, the same questionnaire was administered as a post-test. Finally, the scores of both pre-test and post-test stages obtained from two control and experimental groups were compared by using univariate analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). The results of confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the questions of this scale, based on 13 existing factors, were apt to explain the structure of problems in children’s learning in the research community. Therefore, Learning Disabilities Scale as a reliable and valid scale in Iranian society could be used by researchers in the fields of psychology and counseling. Furthermore, the results of analysis of covariance indicated that teaching and strengthening executive functions and cognitive processes such as memory, attention, perception and language skills had an effect on improving students' learning disabilities. According to the consequences, the intervention was effective on all cognitive, emotional and social attributes of students except the development of lateral dominance and the development of children's play.