Efficacy of Parenting Education Compared to the Standard Method in Improvement of Reading and Writing Disabilities in Children

OBJECTIVE The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of parenting education on improvement of reading and writing disabilities in children. METHODS A randomized controlled trial was done on primary school students with reading and writing disabilities and their mothers. The subjects were divided into three groups with 26 members in each group. The first group (mothers' education group) received 6 one-hour new educational sessions. The second group (standard group) received 12-15 standard educational sessions for learning disability, and the third group (control group) which consisted of students with learning disability did not receive any treatments. Research instruments included reading and writing tests, and demographic questionnaire. The three groups were evaluated via pretest and posttests at baseline and after one and three months of educational interventions. Data were analyzed using the chi-square, t-test, and repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). RESULTS The mean reading speed had the most progression in the mothers' education group. Comparison among reading speed, reading accuracy, and spelling scores has been statistically significant (F 2, 6 = 90.64;p < 0.001) but the mean of these scores has been insignificant among the three groups (F 2, 67 = 0.583;p > 0.05). The mean reading accuracy, mostly increased after 3-month interventions in the mothers group. The control group had the lowest mean reading accuracy scores. CONCLUSION Parenting education in mothers had a positive effect on the treatment of children with reading and writing disabilities. DECLARATION OF INTEREST None. Clinical Trial Registration-URL: http://www.irct.ir. Unique identifier: IRCT201101205653N1.