The Effectiveness of Group Play Therapy on Social Skills and Memory Performance of primary school girl student’s with Specific learning disorder

Introduction: Learning disorders is one of the important factors in the academic failure of some students and determining appropriate therapeutic methods can solve their educational problems and increase their sense of self-esteem. Therefore, the purpose of present study was to investigate the effectiveness of group play therapy on social skillsand memory performance of Primary school girl students with specific learning disorder. Methods: This research method was quasi-experimental (pre-test and post-test with control group). The statistical populationconsisted of all primary school girl students of Ahvaz in the academic year 2016-2017. 30 students who had criteria for diagnosis of Specific learning disorder based on the revised IQ test for children (1974) and social skills scale Gresham and Elliot (1990) had social skills defects, were randomly selected and randomly assigned to two groups of 15 were placed. Participants in the experimental group received group play therapy for 10 sessions of 60 minutes. After the end of the educational program, both scales were implemented for both groups. Results: The results showed that group play therapy improvement of social skills in the dimensions of cooperation, self-expression and self-control and improving the memory of short-term visual and auditory memory in the experimental group. Conclusions: According to the findings, intervention of play therapy with the aim of cognitive rehabilitation of students with learning disorder is effective in improving their executive functions and complementary therapies and hence, performing group play therapy, as a perfect interventional program, is recommended by skilled experts in order to improve the conditions of girl studentswith specific learning disorder.