The effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral play therapy on school anxiety and shyness in students with learning disabilities

Studies show the effect of learning disability on school anxiety and students' shyness. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral play therapy on school anxiety and shyness in students with learning disabilities.

In this study, quasi-experimental method and pre-test and post-test design with control group were used. The statistical population of this study included fourth and fifth grade male and female students of elementary school in Tehran who have math learning disabilities and have been referred to learning disability rehabilitation centers. From this population, 30 people were purposefully selected and randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups (15 each). School Anxiety Inventory (Phillips, 1978) and Shyness Questionnaire (Cruiser, 1995) were the research tools. The research findings were finally analyzed using SPSS software version 23 and covariance test at the level of 0.05.

Descriptive findings showed that the scores of the experimental group compared to the scores of the control group had a significant decrease in both school anxiety and shyness. The result of analysis of covariance showed that after removing the pre-test effect, the mean post-test scores of the two groups had a statistically significant difference (p <0.001).

According to the results, this study shows that cognitive-behavioral play therapy has a positive effect on reducing school anxiety and shyness in students with learning disabilities.