Acquiring social and cognitive skills in an intervention for Arab parents of children with intellectual developmental disability accompanied by behavioral conditions

Objective The current study examined the efficacy of acquiring social and cognitive skills in an intervention for Arab parents of children with intellectual developmental disability (IDD) accompanied by behavioral conditions Method The research sample included 50 Arab parents with a child aged 8-12 who has a minor IDD and attends a special education school within the Haifa district in Israel. Upon providing written consent, parents completed the Bloomquist questionnaire and self-reported on their own and their child's behaviors across the 10 domains. Parents were then randomized to either the experimental or control group. Results The cognitive-behavioral intervention, which focused on fostering social and cognitive skills within the parent-child dyad, yielded improvements in eight domains: parental stress, positive parental thinking, parental involvement/positive reinforcement, child's obedience to rules, child's social skills, child's ability to manage anger, and child's demonstration of independent learning. In contrast, no improvements were observed for control participants who engaged in an art therapy intervention, suggesting the unique efficacy of the intervention developed in the current study. Conclusions In line with prior studies in samples from Western cultures, the current work represents the first systematic examination of an intervention for parents of children with IDD in Arab society.