The Effectiveness of Theory of Mind Teaching on the Social Competencies in Children of Down Syndrome

Tavakoli Zeinab¹ Demehri Farangis² Azizi Mahdiye³

1) Graduate of Elmo Honar University, Yazd, Iran
2) Ph.D. Extraordinary Children Psychology, Department of Psychology Elmo Honar University, Yazd, Iran
3) PhD student of psychology in Allame Tabatabaie University, Member of educational group in Elmo Honar University, Yazd. Iran

IOI Code : XBHE-EKFDK
Publication : International Conference on Exceptional Children(peec-uma.ir)
Abstract :
    Abstract Background & Objectiv: The deficiencies in social adequacy in Down s syndrome children have prevented them from having adequate behaviors in social situations and lacking interpersonal interactions. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of teaching the theory of mind on the social adequacy of Down syndrome in the first and second elementary schools of Yazd in the academic year 1396-1397 Methods: This is a semi-experimental design with pretest-posttest design with control group. The statistical population of all children was Down syndrome in Yazd city, in which 24 children with Down syndrome were selected by available sampling method and randomly divided into two experimental and control groups (each group was 12). Using social adequacy tests(Prandin, 2006) both groups were assessed in two pre-test and post-test situations. Twelve sessions of mind theory training were conducted for the experimental group. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation) and inferential (covariance analysis) by SPSS21 software. Results: The results showed that the training of the theory of mind had a significant effect on social adequacy (F = 39/349. Also, the scores of the experimental and control groups in the subscales of social skills (F= 70/726), cooperation scalene (F=36/214) and decisiveness(F = 93/664)significant difference was found. Conclusion: According to the results, teaching the theory of mind improves the social adequacy of children with Down syndrome.

Keywords : mind theory down syndrome mental retardation social adequacy