Designing family-based cognitive rehabilitation and evaluation of its effectivenesson working memory, sustained attention, inhibition, and social skills of children with intellectual disability

Abstract

Introduction: Educational performance and executive functions are two factors related to positive outcomes. Delay or the reduction of the development of executive functions in children with Intellectual Disabilities (ID) may result in negative outcomes in social skills and educational competence. The main important aspects of executive functions, including working memory, attention, and inhibition are considered the main predictors of learning social skills, as well as educational skills in life. The current study aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of family-based cognitive rehabilitation on working memory, sustained attention, inhibition, and social skills of children with ID. Materials and Methods: The participants of the present study were a subgroup of 11-14-year-old children with ID, who were studying in the exceptional schools from 2017 to 2018 in Tehran, Iran. The samples were selected by clustering multi-stages method; 15 students were assigned to the experimental group and 15 students were assigned to the control group. Then, they were evaluated by the Boshra test for cognitive inhibition, working memory test for children, Integrated Visual and Auditory (IVA) test, Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF), and Vineland social skill scale before and after the cognitive family-based intervention. The experimental group received 12 sessions of intervention. The data were analyzed by SPSS V. 24. Results: Family-based cognitive rehabilitation had significant effects on improving working memory, attention, and inhibition (P<0.001) through addressing underlying executive functions, but had no significant effect on the social skills of children with ID. Conclusion: As a new intervention, cognitive family-based rehabilitation may improve the executive functions of children with ID as supplementary intervention along with behavioral or other cognitive interventions to help children overcome some challenges under social situations.