The effectiveness of gestalt play therapy on aggression and test anxiety of students with specific learning disorder

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of Gestalt play therapy on aggression and test anxiety of elementary school students with specific learning disabilities. The research method was semi-experimental with a pre-test & post-test design and a follow-up period of one month. The statistical population included all elementary school girls (first period) with specific learning disabilities in reading and writing who were studying in Kashan City in the academic year 1402-1401. The sampling method was purposeful. In this way, 30 female elementary school students with choice disorder were randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups (15 people each). The tools used included the Nelson & Finch Children`s Inventory of Anger (CHIA), (2000) and the Abolghasemi et al test anxiety scale (TAI), (2015). The experimental group was treated in 10 sessions of 45 minutes twice a week and in three groups of five people, they were treated with a play therapy educational package based on the Gestalt method of Violet Oaklander (1997). The collected data were analyzed by repeated measure analysis of variance. The results showed that there is a significant difference between the averages in the pre-test, post-test, and follow-up stages (p≤0.001), while no significant difference was observed between the averages in the post-test and follow-up stages, which indicates the stability of the effectiveness of the intervention. Therefore, using gestalt play therapy can be effective in reducing aggression and test anxiety of students with special learning disorders.