مجله مطالعات ناتوانی
سال سوم شماره 3 (زمستان 1392)

The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of Cognitive and Exposure therapies in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). An experimental study was conducted through pre-test, post-test methods, using a control group. The statistical population of the study included all 20-40 year old OCD patients visiting clinical centers in Saghez and Boukan. Forty five patients with OCD were randomly selected from this population as samples. The experimental group underwent both cognitive and exposure therapies. The control group did not receive any kind of therapy. Data gathering was done with the Madsly questionnaire for OCD. Data analysis was done using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) and the least significant difference (LSD) test to compare scores differences between pretest and posttest variables in the experimental and control groups. Findings showed that cognitive and exposure therapies had significant impacts on improving obsession, checking out, washing, slowness and obsessive doubts in comparison to the control group (p<0.01). The results showed that Whittle’s Cognitive therapy had greater impact on reducing obsessions as compared to Exposure therapy.

Today frigidity is considered a sexual disability. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between sexual frigidity (as a sexual disability) and the dimensions of marital conflict in married women in Yazd. The study was descriptive-correlational. The study population consisted of all married women living in Yazd. A hundred women who possessed the inclusion criteria were selected by purposeful sampling. The instruments of this research included two questionnaires: the Marital Conflict (MCQ) & Sexual Frigidity questionnaires. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation) and Pearson’s correlation coefficient at (p=0.05). Results showed a significant relationship between women’s sexual frigidity and the dimensions of marital conflict (p<0.05). This correlation was negatively associated with: partnership at home (r=0.329), sexual relationship (r=0.459), emotional reactions (r=0.359), and support seeking from children (r=0.269). Sexual frigidity was positively associated with: individual relationship with own relatives (r=0313), individual relationship with spouse’s relatives and friends (r=0.375), and separation of finances from each other (r=0.393). Moreover, there was not a significant relationship between sexual frigidity and duration of marriage (r=0.137) & women’s age (r=0.220) (p>0.05). Based on these findings, women with higher marital conflicts show higher sexual frigidity. Furthermore, marital conflicts decreased with the passage of years of marriage. An increased sexual frigidity also reduced partner support.

The aim of the current research was to investigate the effectiveness of early Psycho-Educational interventions in improving the academic performance of children with mathematics learning disabilities. The study population consisted of 4th grade elementary male students with math learning disabilities in Esfahan in the educational year 2012-2013. Thirty such students were selected using multistage random cluster sampling and divided into experimental and control groups (each group consisted of 15 children). The data collection tools included: Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Revised Fourth Edition, Dyscalculia Diagnostic Test, math academic performance test. Clinical interviews were also held. The design was quasi-experimental and the early psycho-educational intervention was performed in the experimental group. Data was analyzed by analysis of covariance. Findings indicate that early psycho-educational interventions can improve the academic performance of children with mathematics learning disabilities (p<0.001). Early psycho-educational interventions (attention, memory, executive function) can considerably help students with math learning disabilities, as basic math learning skills are strengthened.

The purpose of this study was to compare self-efficacy beliefs and mental health and their relationship between gifted and normal students.

A cross-sectional study was conducted. The sample of this study was randomly selected and consisted of 100 students (50 gifted student and 50 normal students) in Babul. Data were collected by Sherer’s General Self-Efficacy Scale, General Health Questionnaire and Raven’s Intelligence Test (Adult forms). Independent t-test, Pearson's correlation and multivariate regression tests were used to analyze the data.

There were significant differences between the average mental health (p= 0.001) and self-efficacy beliefs (p= 0.005) of gifted and normal students. Also, there were significant relationships between self-efficacy beliefs and mental health and its components in gifted and normal students (p= 0.01, r= 0.650).

According to the results, it seems that normal students had lower levels of mental health as compared to gifted students. It is recommended that students of normal schools by psychologists, counselors and other staff in the schools, more attention to them.

This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a cognitive training program in individuals with ADHD. The participants included 38 ADHD children who were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. The experimental group practiced with the CogniPlus training programs for 27 sessions, while the control group practiced their routine educational activities. The ‘Tehran-Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale’-Fifth Edition (SB5) and the ‘Child Behavior Checklist’ (CBCL) served as the data collection tools for determining the benefits of the cognitive training program on cognitive skills and ADHD symptoms. The findings revealed improvement in the experimental group’s visuospatial skills, such that these skills were maintained over a 1-month follow up period (p<0.05). The experimental group’s visuospatial skills had increased from (M=95.63, S=12.30) in the pretest to (M=103.52, S=8.51) in the intervention phase, as opposed to the control group in which scores did not show significant changes from pretest (M=96.68, S=11.88) to post-test (M=98.26, S=10.75). Statistical analyses did not reveal significant differences between the two groups’ performances in other cognitive skills, such as: Fluid Reasoning, Knowledge, Quantitative Reasoning, and Working Memory. Moreover, the severity of ADHD symptoms did not change from pre-test to post-test. Cognitive training may enhance certain cognitive skills in ADHD individuals, but more research is required to generalize the positive effects of these programs to the other clinical features of ADHD.

This research aimed to study the effect of Cued Speech teaching on raising phonological awareness in children with educable intellectual disability by studying the subunits of phonological awareness: syllable segmentation, alliteration, naming, matching the starting phonemes and phoneme deletion and rhythm. This was a quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest study with control group. Ten children with educable intellectual disability were chosen and divided into two equally populated groups, the experimental group and the control group. The ‘1378 Solaymani Phonological Awareness Questionnaire’ was used in the beginning and at the end of the study for both groups. We held 40 sessions of Cued Speech training (90 minutes each) for the experimental group. Analysis of data with added score and t-test revealed that phonological awareness skills and its subunits including syllable segmentation and rhythm had significantly improved in the experimental group (p<0.05). However, no significant effect was observed in their alliteration. According to our results, teaching Cued Speech to children with educable intellectual disability improves their phonological skills and prevents communication problems associated with reading.

Visual attention is one of the most important skills and abilities students require to pass different school levels. These abilities are defected in students suffering from dysgraphia. The current study investigated the effect of play therapy on improving visual attention in students with dysgraphia through a single subject study. Three of the students visiting Esfahan’s Cognitive Therapy Centre were selected as the participants of this study. Each participant went through 3 sessions as the base line, 12 sessions of play therapy and 3 sessions of follow-up. NEPSY and the spelling test were used to measure the amount of improvement in visual attention and dysgraphia, respectively. Results of the visual analysis of data and descriptive statistics showed the effectiveness of the intervention in all three participants (100% PND for all three participants). Visual attention improved by play therapy in students with dysgraphia. Therefore, play therapy can be used as a method for improving academic performance in students suffering from dysgraphia.

The purpose of this study was to compare marital satisfaction in parents of children with trainable intellectual disability deprived of and benefiting from educational-financial rehabilitation services. A descriptive-analytical study was conducted through the census method. 240 parents of the aforementioned children were selected through random sampling in Khorramabad. The ENRICH marital satisfaction questionnaire was used to collect data. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistical tests (mean, SD), inferential tests (one-way ANOVA and follow-up tests). Overall, the results showed a significant difference between the parental marital satisfaction of the group of children benefiting from and those deprived of financial & educational rehabilitation services (p=0.039). Furthermore, there was a significant difference between the group that had received educational services only, as compared to that which had not received any services at all (p=0.031). Provision of educational-financial services improves marital satisfaction in parents of ‘trainable mentally retarded children’.

Vision is the most powerful source of perception of the external world, and is responsible for transferring 80-90 percent of information to the mind. So, even slight disorders in its functions cause severe deviations in physical, psychological and motor growth. The purpose of this study was to study the motor reaction capability in blind and visually impaired children by comparing them with their healthy equals. The study population of this descriptive-comparative study consisted of 8 to12 year-old students of Kermanshah’s public schools. Sixty five students were selected through cluster sampling as the healthy group. Thirty students with a visual sharpness of 0.05-0.04 Diopter in the superior eye volunteered from public and exceptional schools as the group with visual impairment. And 16 students with a maximum visual sharpness of 0.04 Diopter in the superior eye volunteered as the blind group. The subjects’ reactions were measured by the ruler test. Data analysis was done by descriptive and inferential statistics (one-way ANOVA and post hoc Tukey’s test) to examine the difference in means at a p≤0.05. There were significant differences between the motor reaction capability of ‘blind & visually impaired’ and healthy children, such that blind children were in a better condition. The results indicate that blind & visually impaired individuals have a high capacity to learn relief mechanisms to compensate for their defective visual receptors.