Document Type : Research Article

Authors

• Dehghani Mohamad Hossein ¹
• Salar Faramarzi ²
• Khosro Ramezani ³

¹ PhD. Student, Department of Psychology, Yasuj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Yasuj, Iran.

² Professor in Department of Psychology and Education of Children with Special Needs, Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran.

³ Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities, Zand Shiraz Institute of Higher Education, Shiraz, Iran.

Abstract

Specific learning disorders are one of the most common learning problems of students in elementary school, which psychologically have an adverse effect on these children. Specific learning disorders are a type of chronic problem with a neurological and developmental basis that generally starts in the early stages of development, i.e. before school age, and continues until adulthood if not properly addressed. The purpose of this study was to investigate the development of a parenting training package for children with specific learning disorders based on the lived experience of parents and to compare its effect with Barclay's parenting training on the psychological well-being of parents, psychological resilience, social adjustment, and academic performance of students.

Method
The research method was semi-experimental with a pre-test, post-test, and follow-up design with two experimental groups and a control group. The statistical population of the present study included two groups, in the qualitative part including all parents of children with special learning disorders and in the quantitative part including all mothers of students with special learning disorders in Abadeh city. For the qualitative part of the research, the interviews were continued until the theoretical saturation of information, and the interviews with 10 parents were at saturation level. Purposive sampling method was used to select people for interview. In the implementation of the research, sampling was done as available. Based on this, 45 mothers with special learning disorder students were selected, and 15 were randomly assigned to the experimental group (parenting training package), 15 to the experimental group (Barclay's parenting training), and 15 to the control group. The parenting training package created by the researcher was implemented for the parents of the first experimental group (in8 sessions of 90 minutes) and Barclay's parenting training (in 8 sessions of 90 minutes). The measurement tools included Riff's psychological well-being questionnaire (2002), Connor-Davidson psychological resilience questionnaire (2003), Bell's social adjustment questionnaire (1961), Pham and Taylor's academic performance questionnaire (1999). To inferential analysis of the data, the statistical methods of multivariate analysis of variance and analysis of variance with repeated measurements were used.

Results
The results showed that there was a significant difference between the impact of the two parenting training methods developed by the researcher and Barclay's parenting training on social adjustment and academic performance among mothers with children with specific learning disorders, while there was a significant difference between the impact of the two mentioned methods on mental well-being and there was no significant difference in mental resilience.

Discussion
Parenting training package and Barkley parenting training had a significant effect on improving psychological well-being, psychological resilience, social adjustment, and academic performance among mothers with children with specific learning disabilities. The discussion about comparing the effectiveness of parenting training package and Barclay parenting training on mental resilience, social adaptation, and academic performance among mothers with children with special learning disorders showed that there is a significant difference between the effectiveness of the two parenting training package methods. Barclay's parenting training influenced social adaptation and academic performance among mothers with children with specific learning disabilities, while there is no significant difference between the two mentioned methods on psychological resilience. Based on the results of the follow-up test, the parenting training package developed by the researcher had a greater impact on improving social adaptation and academic performance.

Keywords

• Learning disorder
• Barclay's parenting training
• psychological resilience
• social adjustment
• academic performance

Main Subjects

• Exceptional Children Psychology