The Effectiveness of Linguistic Games on Students' Social Skills with Down Syndrome

Subject Areas : Adolescent health

Parvin Dabiryan ¹ , Parviz Sharifi Daramadi ^{2 *} , Mohammad Asgari ³ , Mohammadparsa Azizi ⁴ , Majid Ebrahim pour ⁵

1 - PhD student, University of Research Sciences, Tehran, Iran [e-mail]
2 - (Corresponding author), Associate Professor, Department of Psychology and Education of Exceptional Children, Allameh Tabatabaei University, Tehran, Iran, [e-mail], tell:09183372760
3 - Faculty member, University of Hamadan, Hamedan, Iran [e-mail]
4 - Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology and Education of Exceptional Children, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran. [e-mail]
5 - Faculty member, Azad University, Research Sciences Branch, Tehran, Iran [e-mail]

Received: 2025-05-28 Accepted : 2025-07-15 Published : 2025-10-07

Keywords: Down Syndrome, Linguistic Games, Social Skills,

Abstract :

© 2020 The Author(s). This work is published by family and health as an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Introduction: Children with Down syndrome face numerous challenges in learning and social interactions, and the use of innovative approaches, such as linguistic games, can play a crucial role in enhancing their social skills. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of linguistic games on the social skills of students with Down Syndrome.

Research Method: The statistical population included all male and female students with Down syndrome in the second to fourth special schools in Tehran in the academic year 4-5 (N = 120). By targeted sampling, 3 of these students were selected and randomly assigned to two groups: experimental (2) and control (2). The data collection tool was the Maston Social Skills Questionnaire (1983). The experimental group participated in two sessions of linguistic games training, while the control group did not receive an intervention. Data analysis was performed using SPSS software and the Corgentine analysis test.

Results: Statistical analysis showed that there is a significant difference between the social skills scores of the two groups in the post-test phase (P <0.05), and linguistic games were able to explain about 42 % of social skills variance.

Conclusion: Findings show that linguistic games significantly enhance students' social skills with Down Syndrome. Therefore, designing and applying these games in children's training and rehabilitation centers with special needs can be recommended as part of effective clinical interventions.

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