Comparing the Effect of Interventions Based on Movement Games, Virtual Reality, and Vision on the Writing Skills of Elementary School Students with Learning Disabilities

A learning disability is a defect generally affecting academic performance and progress in skills such as reading and writing. Learning disability problems manifest usually asymmetrically in different areas, such as information processing, motor coordination patterns, drawing shapes, and writing. A learning disability is a chronic incapacity that affects the development of multiple basic functions, including academic, psychological, and neuropsychological. Neuropsychological deficits are observed in poor accuracy, visual–auditory attention, motor coordination, executive functions, and non–verbal memory. The academic problems affect reading comprehension, reasoning in math, arithmetic calculations, and writing. A learning disability is a neurological disorder that affects one or more of the main psychological processes involved in learning.

Our research method was quasi–experimental with a pretest–posttest design including three experimental groups. The statistical population comprised all female students of the second and third grades of Chalus City, Iran, who had learning disabilities based on the Colorado Learning Difficulties Questionnaire (Willcutt et al., 2011). A total of 43 qualified volunteer students were selected using random sampling and were divided into 3 experimental groups: vision (14 students), virtual reality (15 students), and motor (14 students). The inclusion criteria were as follows: female students of second– and third–grade elementary school students and residents in Chalus City. The exclusion criteria were as follows: a history of illness, failure to comply with research rules, and not participating in training. Writing Performance Test (Fallahchai, 1995) was used to measure the writing skills of the subjects. An analysis of covariance was used to check the effectiveness of exercises and the differences between research groups in the posttest. The LSD post hoc test was used to examine the groups in pairs. Next, to explore the changes within the group from the pretest to the posttest, the paired t test was used. Statistical analyses were performed in SPSS software version 26 at a significance level of 0.05.

After controlling for the effect of the pretest, the covariance analysis showed a significant difference between the three experimental groups in the average writing skill in the posttest (p<0.001). The results of the LSD post hoc test showed that the vision training group obtained higher scores in the writing skill in the posttest compared to the other two groups (p<0.001). However, there was no significant difference in writing skills in the posttest between the two virtual and moving reality groups (p=0.459). The paired t test results showed that all three training groups significantly obtained higher scores in the posttest in writing skills compared to the pretest (p<0.001).

Based on the research results, game–based interventions can be used to improve writing skills. Vision games are also more effective than other interventions used in the study.