The effect of electronic storytelling on the development of social skills and emotional regulation of mentally retarded children

Socialization is more important in childhood and it can be very effective on the child's personality and emotional regulation. Indeed, storytelling has a special role and position among the methods of teaching it to children. The present study is based on a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test-post-test of the control group to investigate the effect of electronic storytelling on the development of social skills and emotional regulation of mentally retarded male students. The statistical population of the study included all male students with mental disabilities of The Exceptional School of Golestan 1 in Baharestan Province. In this study, thirty of these students were selected using a simple random sampling and were divided in two groups of experimental group and control group each containing fifteen ones. The experimental group was trained in social skills and emotional regulation through electronic storytelling for 12 months in twelve 20-minute sessions. The data were collected after the sessions were over and analyzed using analysis of covariance. The results indicated that teaching social skills through electronic storytelling is effective on improving and strengthening social skills, emotional regulation and communication with respect in students with mental retardation.