نشریه توانمندسازی کودکان استثنایی
سال دوازدهم شماره 2 (تابستان 1400)

The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effectiveness of group narrative therapy on the psychological well-being and cognitive emotion regulation of mothers of children with hearing impairment. The present paper is a quasi-experimental study with a pretest, posttest, and control group design and a two-month follow-up period. The statistical population of the present study included 96 mothers of hearing impaired children referred to training centers for hearing impaired children in 2018–19 in Shahrekord City. 40 mothers were selected by voluntary sampling method and randomly divided into experimental and control groups (each group consisted of 20 mothers). Three mothers from the experimental group and two mothers from the control group withdrew their participation in the study after the intervention began. The experimental group received twelve ninety-minute sessions of the Training Narrative Therapy intervention (Lopez et al., 2014) over three months. The questionnaires used in this study included Psychological Well-Being Questionnaire (Ryff, 1996) and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Garenfski et al., 2001). Data from the study were analyzed using repeated measures method ANOVA. The results showed that group narrative therapy had a significant effect on the psychological well-being and cognitive emotion regulation of the mothers of hearing-impaired children (p 0.001),  such that this therapy led to an improvement in psychological well-being and positive cognitive emotion regulation and a decrease in negative cognitive emotion regulation in the mothers of hearing-impaired children. The results of the present study show that narrative therapy can be used as an efficient therapy to improve the psychological well-being and cognitive emotion regulation of the mothers of hearing-impaired children by using techniques such as externalizing the problem, examining major life challenges, and determining negative and positive factors in the life process.

This study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effectiveness of a rhythmic singing training program on emotion regulation in adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder. For this purpose, 20 students with Autism Spectrum Disorder were selected and randomly divided into two groups, an experimental and a control group, based on their age, IQ, and level of functioning. Emotion Regulation Checklist (Shields & Cicchetti, 1998) was used as a measurement tool in this study. The experimental group experienced 15 sessions of rhythmic singing (45 minutes per session) and the control group waited on the waiting list. At the end, the emotion regulation checklist was again used for the posttest phase and all data were analyzed with SPSS software using Multiple Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA). The findings showed that rhythmic singing training program was effective on emotion regulation of adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder with an effect size of 0.313 (p≤0.01). Thus, this intervention can be used to enable exceptional adolescents to improve their emotion regulation, especially adolescents with autism spectrum disorders.

Learning disabilities almost always lead to academic failure. In the field of mathematics, not only the individual’s performance and academic progress, but also all their daily activities are associated with many problems. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of education based on executable functions (cognitive and fractional) in improving problem solving components in Dyscalculia students. This was a semi-experimental research project with pretest, posttest and a control group. The statistical sample consisted of 30 students selected from Birjand City schools through a judicial sampling procedure and randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups. The students in the experimental group received the necessary training for 2 months in 32 sessions, while the control group received no special program and training and continued with their normal classes. One month later, another follow-up was held to check the training. Heppner’s Problem-Solving Inventory was used to collect data. The analysis of covariance test and SPSS 20 software were used for data analysis. Results show that teaching executive functions (cognitive and metacognitive) improves component problem-solving skills, better and more desirable concept learning, and academic achievement in students with dyslexia. This study demonstrated that teaching executive functions (cognitive and metacognitive) can be used as an effective method to reduce dyslexia and improve students’ academic achievement.

The aim of this study was comparing the efficacy of Serious Games Brain Training and CogniPlus on improvement of attention and processing speed in children with Attention Deficit /Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Sample included 45 two to six grade students diagnosed with ADHD who were selected by convenience sampling. 30 students from the sample group selected and recruited in the “CogniPlus group” and “Brain Train group” (each group 15 students). 15 students were placed in the control group without any intervention. Each experimental group separately attended twenty-four 50-60-minutes cognitive computer training sessions by “Brain Train” and “CogniPlus" . Functions of three groups were evaluated in attention and processing speed in pre-test and post-test by IVA+ and subscale of processing speed of intelligence test of Wechsler. Collected data were analyzed with univariate and multivariate analysis of variance. Results demonstrated the efficacy of cognitive computer training in improving the performance of attention and processing speed of children with ADHD in two experiment groups in comparison to the control group. Also, there was no significant difference between the two experiment groups in improving processing speed and auditory attention sustenance. However, visual attention sustenance significantly was improved in the CogniPlus group more than Brain Train group. findings indicated that the games used in this study could result in improved attention and processing speed of children with ADHD. Also, findings indicate that the CogniPlus Intervention Program has more effect than Brain Train on visual cognitive skills.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Approach on academic motovition and academic emotions in second grade gifted high school students. The method of the present study was quasi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design and a control group. The statistical population included gifted male high school students in Isfahan in 2019-2020. The sample consisted of 30 gifted male students in two experimental and control groups (two groups of 15 each) randomly selected by purposive sampling method. The experimental group received an educational intervention in 11 sessions of 60 minutes each over two months. The research instruments included  Pekrun Academic Emotion Questionnaire (2005) and Walrand et al. (1992) Educational Motivation Questionnaire. Data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) using SPSS-24. The results showed that Martin’s Cognitive-Behavioral Approach was positively (P = 0.005, F=12.39) and negatively (P= 0.003, F=13.39) and external academic motivation (P = 0.001, F = 14.78) and internal academic emotions (P =0.001, F =21.82) effective. Based on the results of this study, it is also reasonable for schools to create appropriate conditions for the implementation of this method in schools to strengthen and improve students’ academic motivation and academic enthusiasm.

The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the efficacy of schema therapy on the cognitive avoidance of female students with early maladaptive schema. The present study had an experimental design with pretest, posttest, control group and two months follow up period. The statistical population of the present study included secondary school female students with early maladaptive schema in the city of Isfahan in the academic year 2019-2020.Thirty female students with early maladaptive schema were selected by purposive sampling and randomly divided into experimental and control groups (each group consists of 15 adolescents). The experimental group received eight seventy-five minute sessions of a schema therapy intervention over one month (Sayyadi et al., 2017). Two students from the experimental group and two from the control group withdrew from the study. The questionnaires used in the current study included Early Maladaptive Schema Questionnaire (EMSQ) and Cognitive Avoidance Questionnaire (CAQ). The data obtained from the study were analyzed by repeated measures method ANOVA using SPSS 23 software. The results showed that schema therapy has a significant effect on cognitive avoidance of female adolescents with early maladaptive schema (p<0.001). The results of the present study suggest that schema therapy can be used as an effective therapy to reduce cognitive avoidance in female adolescents with early maladaptive schema.

Attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by a persistent pattern of attention deficit and hyperactivity. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of sand tray therapy on anxiety, hyperactivity, and attention deficit in ADHD children. The research method was semi-experimental and the statistical population included all children aged 7-12 years in Hamedan who were referred to counseling services for ADHD in the fourth quarter of 2017 and had been diagnosed with ADHD by a child counselor or therapist. The statistical population consisted of approximately 280 individuals. Of these individuals, 32 people were selected using purposeful sampling method and placed in the control and experimental groups. The required data were collected using Conner’s Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (1999) and Reynolds & Richmond Children’s Anxiety Scale (1978). The sand tray therapy intervention protocol was implemented with eight 45-minute sessions following Boycott and Goodwin’s (2000) program. The results of data analysis by MANCOVA test showed that sand tray therapy was effective on the anxiety, hyperactivity and attention deficits of ADHD children (p = 0.01). Based on this, the ANCOVA test showed that sand tray therapy significantly reduced ADHD children’s physical anxiety, sensitivity, and apprehension (p = 0.05). In addition, sand tray therapy reduced hyperactivity (p = 0.01) and attention deficits (p = 0.05) of ADHD children.

The purpose of this study was to identify the effectiveness of solution-focused brief counseling on Internet addiction among adolescent boys. In this quasi-experimental study, a pretest/posttest design with a control group was used.. The population included all male students in Tehran’s 16 district. One of the local high schools was randomly sampled. Of all the students in this school, 30 were selected based on the highest score on the Young Internet Addiction Test (IAT) and divided into the two experimental and control groups. The experimental group received six 75-minute sessions of brief solution-focused counseling, while the control group received no counseling during this period. At the end of the experiment, both groups underwent a posttest, and data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and analysis of covariance. The result showed that counseling had a significant effect on reducing internet addiction among adolescents. It seems that solution-focused brief counseling is an appropriate method to reduce internet addiction among male adolescents. The results show the importance of learning the principles of solution-focused brief counseling and therapy.

The present study aimed to train the creative problem solving program and determines its effectiveness on reducing behavior problems in gifted elementary students. The research was conducted as a quasi-experimental study with two intervention and control groups with pretest and posttest. The statistical population comprised gifted male primary school students of Mulla Sadra school in Karaj who started school in 2019-2020. The statistical sample consisted of 50 second grade male students who were randomly selected and divided into experimental and control groups. The data collection instrument was Achenbach Child Behavioral Checklist (CBCL). The experimental group received 12 sessions of the program twice a week and their parents received 4 training sessions at the same time. Both groups answered the Child Behavioral Checklist in two phases, a pretest and a posttest. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS-25. The results showed that training a comprehensive creative problem-solving program significantly reduced behavior problems in gifted students (P <0.005). Therefore, training Comprehensive Creative Problem Solving Program can counteract behavior problems by creating a sense of efficiency and self-confidence and laying the foundation for reducing behavior problems.

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of quality of life, adjustment, and forgiveness in predicting marital satisfaction of mothers with slow paced children. The present study was descriptive-correlational. The statistical population of the study consisted of all mothers of girls and boys in Tehran whose children were enrolled in special schools in Tehran during the academic year 2018-2019, including 200 from two special schools for girls (110 individuals) and boys (90 individuals). The sample was selected using available sampling method. Enrich Marital Satisfaction Questionnaire (1989), the World Organization for Quality Scale (1998), Pollard, Anderson, Anderson, & Jennings Family Forgiveness Questionnaire (1998) and Bell Social Adjustment Questionnaire (1961) were used to collect data. Pearson’s correlation coefficient and multivariate regression analysis were used to analyze the data. The results of the correlation test showed that there was a significant positive relationship between marital satisfaction and the components of forgiveness, quality of life and adjustment (p <0.01). There is also a significant positive relationship between the components of forgiveness with quality of life and adjustment (p <0.01). Only between forgiveness and marital satisfaction with health adjustment component, no significant relationship was found. The results of the regression analysis showed that adjustment and forgiveness played a positive significant role in predicting marital satisfaction of mothers with children with special needs. Together, these two variables predicted 27% of the variance in the marital satisfaction variable (p<0.01). The results of the present study suggest that forgiveness and compromise may play an effective role in increasing marital satisfaction among women.