[ efficacy of group play therapy on the social skills of pre-school hearing-impaired children]

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to investigate of the efficacy of group play therapy on the social skills of pre-school hearing-impaired children

Materials and Methods: The present research was a semi-experimental study with pre-test, post-test design and control group. The participants were 30 male hearing-impaired children from pre-schools centers in Varamin and Gharchak provinces using an available method. Subjects were randomly divided into experimental and control groups, each group consisting of 15 children. The experimental group received 12 sessions of group play therapy and the control group did not. The instruments were done using the Raven coloure progressive matrices test and social skills rating scale. The data were recorded and statistically analyzed using MANCOVA

Results: The results of MANCOVA showed that group play therapy had a significant effect on the social skills of hearing-impaired children [P<0.001]. The results also revealed that group play therapy had a positive and significant effect on all subscales of social skills in these children: cooperation, self-assertiveness and self-control [P<0.001]

Conclusion: Group play therapy can improve the social skills of hearing-impaired children. It is recommended that planning play therapy for hearing-impaired children receives serious attention

Effectiveness of Verbal Self-Instruction Training on Math Problem-Solving of Intellectually Disabled Students

Objectives: Self-instruction training assists students to organize thinking patterns, learning, selfassessment, and self-awareness. This study was aimed to determine the effectiveness of verbal selfinstruction training on math problem-solving of intellectually disabled male students in Tehran Provinces.

Methods: This study was an experimental research with pre-test and post-test design with control group. 30 intellectually disabled male students were selected randomly through cluster sampling method from 9th grade students. They were assigned to experimental and control group equally. Experimental group participated in 8 sessions and were trained by verbal self-instruction program but control group did not. All students answered to a teacher-made math problem-solving test before and after the training sessions. Data were analyzed by analysis of covariance.

Results: Findings showed that there was a significant difference between two groups according to math problem-solving performance [p<0.002].

Discussion: As the performance of math problem-solving of experimental group promoted after the intervention sessions in comparison to control group, it seems that verbal self-instruction has led students to use thinking skills for acquiring and retention of fundamental mathematics facts. It can conclude that verbal self-instruction training probably leads to promote math problem-solving performance of intellectually disabled boy students.

effectiveness of emotional intelligence training on the mental health of male deaf students

Deafness is a common neural-sensory impairment which leads to lower life quality, withdrawal, social activities reduction, and rejection feeling. So, it is important to plan suitable training programs for mental health promotion of deaf children. Emotional intelligence training is one of these programs. The present study was aimed to determine the effectiveness of emotional intelligence training on the mental health of deaf students. In this semi-experimental study with pretest and posttest design, General Health Questionnaire [GHQ] was completed in 40 randomly selected boy deaf students with mean age of [12.48] years old before and after the intervention. The aim of the questionnaire was obtaining information of somatic symptoms, anxiety, social dysfunction, and depression as well as general health. The students were assigned in experimental and control group randomly and in equal. Experimental group participated in 12 sessions [each session lasts for 50 minutes; twice a week] and were trained by emotional intelligence program, but control group did not. Multivariate analysis of covariance [MANCOVA] was used for analyzing the data. There was a significant difference [P<0.001] between experimental and control group according to somatic symptoms, anxiety, social dysfunction, depression and general health as a whole after participation in intervention sessions. There was a significant decrease in somatic symptoms, anxiety, social dysfunction, depression and increase in general health of experimental group. Our findings showed that emotional intelligence training program led to promote of general health of boy deaf students