The Impact of Parents’ Emotional Expression on Their Children with Specific Learning Disorders: The Role of Parental Educational Counseling Program

Abstract

Background: According to the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, the fifth edition (DSM-5), specific learning disorders (SLDs) are neurodevelopmental disorders that share common features of persistent difficulty in learning key academic skills like reading, writing, or mathematics. Some children in different countries worldwide suffer from various forms of SLDs, which can be highly frustrating for a schoolchild, especially if associated with high (negative) parents' emotional expression (PEE).Aim: This study aimed to identify the relation between PEE and anxiety in children with SLD, and evaluate the effect of a parental educational counselling program (PECP) on the emotional expressions (EE) of parents and anxiety in children with SLD.Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted on 140 children with SLD and their parents at the Helwan University Educational Hospital's Learning Disability Unit (LDU) in Cairo, Egypt. The emotional expression scale (EES) of parents and Taylor manifest anxiety scale (TMAS) of children were used, and children's serum cortisol levels were measured as an anxiety marker. TMAS and EES were repeated after the conduction of 10 sessions of PECP. Serum cortisol samples were taken before PECP.Results: The study was revealed that more than half (60%) of studied children are suffered from morbid anxiety, and 80% of their parents practised high EE. Cortisol levels were significantly higher in children with severe& morbid anxiety, and in children whose parents practised high EE (P<0.001). After applying PECP, scores of TMAS demonstrated a significant drop from 33.06±10.4 to 25.85±10.4, and scores of EES showed a significant drop from 61.31±16.84 to 36.51±13.89. Conclusions: There was a statistically significant positive correlation between scores of TMAS& EES before and after PECP (r=0.533) and (r=0.309), respectively, proving the presence of a direct impact of PEE on the anxiety of studied children with SLDs.