Effect of Adlerian Play Therapy on Working Memory of Girl Students With Intellectual Disability Aged 7_12 Years

Objective: Intellectual disability is among the common growth disorders. A defect in the working memory is an obvious fact present among these children. One of the effective ways for learning is to use games and to use play therapy techniques. In this method children are given a chance to practice helpful social behaviors and to experience new thoughts and emotions in a safe environment with supportive-like relations. This study has been done with the aim of evaluating the effectiveness of child centered play therapy with Adlerian method on the working memory of girl students at the age of 7 to 12 having mild intellectual disabilities. Materials & Methods: In this randomized controlled trial study, among 6o students at the age of 7 to 12 with mild intellectual disabilities who were in the special school of Fatimah al-Zahra in the city of Qom, 28 of them had the criterion to enter our study, and were divided into two groups of testing and control randomly through 1:1 method. The study group received the Adlerian therapy for ten weeks, three 45 minutes session per week (30 sessions overall). The working memory of both groups were examined in three phases of pre-test, post-test and one month later without receiving any interference in order to follow up through the fourth edition of WISC IV. The analysis of the data was done by Shapiro–Wilk test, Friedman test, Mann–Whitney test, Bonferroni test and generalized estimating equations and with the 22nd edition of SPSS software. The significance level was put as 5%. Results: The highest number in both groups of testing and control was for the 7 years old (first grade) being 6 students (43%). Also, the least number is for the 9 years old (third grade) with 2 students (14%) in each group. The mean and standard deviation of the working memory quiz increased from 6.28±6.28 in re-test to 10±4.86 in post-test and 12.64±5.25 in follow up. On the other hand, in the control group this variable reached from 5.92±3.19 in re-test to 5.64±3.17 and 5.85±3.41 in post-test and follow up. In the testing group the median for working memory had a meaningful difference throughout all the phases of measurements (p<0.05). In the previous phase of intervention, the median for working memory didn’t have a significant difference in the testing and control groups (p>0.05). in the phase after the intervention the median for working memory can be ignored since its probability is very close to 0.05 and consider it as meaningful. In the follow up phase had a significant difference in the testing and control groups (p<0.05). Conclusion: It seems that child centered play therapy in the Adlerian therapy has had a lasting effect on the working memory of the mild intellectual disabled children. Therefore, child centered play therapy (Adlerian therapy) can be used in the educational programs of such students to reinforce their working memory.