The Effectiveness of Arsh Leisure Time Program on the Profile Working Memory of Children With Educatable Intellectual Disability

Objective Intellectual Disability (ID) affects all aspect of life. Although children with ID have low intelligence, the educational environment, living environment, and relationships with their others, especially their parents, have an important effect on their potential actualization. With regard to the limitations and problems of children with ID in the working memory, it is very important to plan programs to improve their ability in working memory. One of the most important factors in the study of cognitive development and improvement of memory is active participation in the leisure time. Leisure time is an important issue and one of the main elements of human needs in today's life. The use of the rich and proportional leisure time program has been associated with effective outcomes. The present study aimed to determine the effectiveness of enriched and proportional Arsh leisure time program on the working memory profile of students with educable ID. Materials & Methods The present research was a quasi-experimental study with pretest, posttest and control group. The participants were 30 female students with ID from exceptional schools in Isfahan City selected by simple random method. Subjects were divided into experimental and control groups, each group consisted of 15 students. The experimental group received 16 sessions of Arsh leisure time program (two 60-minute sessions per week) and the control group did not. The instruments were working memory test battery for children (2001). The obtained data were collected through the scales before and after the training sessions. Multivariate analysis of covariance was used by SPSS (Version 23) for analyzing the data. Results First, the normality of the study variables and contingency of variance and covariance assumptions were tested. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test showed that all variables were normally distributed (P>0.05). Also, the Box test confirmed the contingency of variance-covariance assumption. So, assumptions of MANCOVA test were met and it can be used for analysis of data. The results showed that Arsh leisure time program had a significant effect on the working memory (P<0.0001). The results also revealed that Arsh leisure time program had a significant effect on the central executive, visual-spatial sketchpad, and phonological loop subscales in these subjects (P<0.001). It can be said that according to Eta2, respectively 63%, 61%, and 68% of variations in central executive, visual-spatial sketchpad and phonological loop subscales can be explained by the participation of subjects in Arsh leisure time program. Conclusion Arsh leisure time program improved working memory of students with educable ID. So, this program can be used to enhance cognitive rehabilitation of these students in the working memory domain. Finally, the planning for providing Arsh leisure time program for these children has particular importance.