the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral play therapy on memory and social skills of children with spelling learning disability

aim and background: one of the most important learning disabilities is spelling learning disability which is accompanied by memory problems and social skills. the main aim of present research was to review the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral play therapy on memory and social skills of children with spelling learning disability. methods and materials: the research method of present study was experimental (pretest-posttest with control group). the statistical universe consisted of all third grade primary school students of dehaghan city (isfahan) in 2012-2013 academic years. the forty students with spelling learning disability selected randomly and then placed in play therapy and control groups randomly. students in the experimental group received cognitive-behavioral play therapy for 8 sessions which each one took 90 minutes. assessment tools consisted of diagnostic test of spelling learning disability, wechsler intelligence scale for children- revised (wisc-r) and gresham’s and elliott’s social skills scale . data was analyzed by analysis of covariance and spss-18. findings: results of covariance analysis model showed that ,with control of pre-test effect٫ there is a significant difference between the experimental and control group in post-test (p< . 01) and the mean scores of memory and social skills in play therapy group in post-test stage has been increased in comparing with the pre-test and control group. conclusions: according to results, cognitive- behavioral play therapy has been effective on improvement of memory and social skills of students who disabled in spelling learning.