Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Play Therapy on Improving Working Memory and Cognitive Flexibility in Children with Special Learning Disorder
Subject Areas : Journal of Educational Psychology
Rana Gharib
1
,
Mir Abdolhasan Askari Rankouh
2
,
Fatemeh Rabipour
3
,
Bahman Akbari
4
1 - MA, Department of Psychology, Rasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran
2 - Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Rasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran
3 - lecturer, Department of Psychology, Rasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran
4 - Prof, Department of Psychology, Rasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran
Keywords: working memory, cognitive flexibility, specific learning disorder, Cognitive-behavioral play therapy,
Abstract :
The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of Cognitive-behavioral play therapy (CBPT) on improving work memory (WM) and cognitive flexibility (CF) in children with Specific Learning Disorder (SLD). The research method was semi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design with a control group. The statistical population of this study included all children (540 people) with SLD referred to the Center for SLD in Rasht in 2018, from among which 24 people were selected by available sampling and randomly replaced in experimental group (12 people) and control (12 people). Then Working Memory Rating Scale (WMRS) and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) in the form of pre-test and post-test were performed on them. Experimental group participants received 10 sessions of 1 hour and twice a week Cognitive-behavioral play therapy (CBPT) program; While in the control group there was no intervention. Data were analyzed using analysis of covariance in SPSS22 software. The results showed that CBPT is effective on improving WM and CF in children with SLD. Based on this, it can be concluded that CBPT intervention method, as a complementary approach, to improve WM and CF of children with SLD, can be used.
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