The Effectiveness of Play Therapy Based on Parent-Child Relationship with a Filial Approach on Emotional Self-Regulation of Primary School Children with Sluggish Cognitive Tempo

The present study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of play therapy based on the parent-child relationship on emotional self-regulation of primary school children with sluggish cognitive tempo. The present study was quasi-experimental with a pretest, posttest, control group, and two-month follow-up period design. The statistical population of the present study included primary school children with sluggish cognitive tempo in the city of Isfahan in the spring of 2021. 35 children with Sluggish Cognitive Tempo were selected through a multi-stage clustered sampling method and they were randomly accommodated into experimental and control groups (17 children in the experimental group and 18 children in the control group). The experimental group received eight seventy-five-minute play-therapy sessions based on parent-child relationship interventions for one month. The applied questionnaires in this study included a sluggish cognitive tempo questionnaire (McBurnet et al, 2014) and an emotional self-regulation questionnaire (Shields & Cicchetti, 1998). The data from the study were analyzed through Mixed ANOVA via SPSS23 software. The results showed that play therapy based on the parent-child relationship has a significant effect on the emotional self-regulation of primary school children with sluggish cognitive tempo (p<0.001). According to the findings of the present study, it can be concluded that play therapy based on the parent-child relationship can be applied as an efficient method to increase the emotional self-regulation of primary school children with sluggish cognitive tempo through employing Empathetic and intimate reflection of the child's feelings, encouragement and strengthening of parents and making communication problems with children natural.