The effect of child-parent relationship therapy on social skills of Preschool Children: a semi-experimental study.

Abstract

Playing games for children is an instinct needed for ensuring happiness, it is a language for communication and self-expression, and a way to learn new things. Therefore, the present study aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of child-parent relationship therapy (CPRT) on the social skills of preschool children. An experimental study with a pretest-posttest design was conducted on 60 preschool children in Kordkuy City, Golestan Province, Iran in 2017 by using a simple random sampling method in both the experimental and control groups. Routine preschool education was performed in the control group and in the experimentalgroup it was done based on play therapy protocol in 10 sessions for 45-60 min. The social skills questionnaire authored by Gresham and Elliott was used as a data gathering tool. The data were analyzed by SPSS 16. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) test showed a significant difference between the scores of the experimental and control groups, which suggests that the CPRT model, a short-term plan of parental play therapy, can improve social skills in preschool children (p = 0/001). Regarding the effectiveness of the CPRT, it is recommended that this method be used is an interactive-educational way in preschool centers of Iran.