The effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation on the performance of attention, response inhibition, and verbal comprehension of children with mathematical learning disabilities

Many children with math learning disabilities encounter challenges related to attention, response inhibition, and verbal comprehension. Cognitive rehabilitation has been recognized as an effective intervention for enhancing the learning abilities of these children. However, there is a lack of comprehensive research regarding the design, development, and effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation tools.

This study was conducted with the aim of examining the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation on attention, response inhibition, and verbal comprehension in children with mathematical learning disabilities.

This study employed a quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test measurements, including a control group. The statistical population consisted of students with math learning disabilities who were referred to centers for learning disorders and cognitive rehabilitation in areas 2, 5, 15, and 18 of Tehran. From this population, a purposive sample of 30 individuals was selected and randomly assigned to two groups: experimental (15 individuals) and control (15 individuals). To diagnose math learning disabilities, the Key-Math examination was used. The experimental group received twelve 50-60 minute sessions of intervention using a researcher-made package called Morva, while the control group did not receive any intervention. The children’s’ performance before and after the intervention was evaluated by the Children’s fourth Wechsler test (Wechsler, 2003) < . Analysis of covariance for the data was conducted in SPSS 22 software.

The results showed that the group receiving cognitive rehabilitation program had a significant improvement compared to the control group in attention and response inhibition variables (p<0.001), but had no significant effect on verbal comprehension (p>0.05)

Considering the positive impact on attention and response inhibition variables in children with math learning disabilities, we recommend the utilization of the MORVA cognitive rehabilitation package as an effective intervention for professionals working in this field.