effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral play therapy on behavioral adjustment and problem-solving skills in students with dyslexia

Background: dyslexia, a specific learning disorder characterized by reading difficulties, can significantly impact students’ academic progress and social-emotional well-being. this study investigated the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral play therapy (cbpt) on behavioral adjustment and problem-solving skills in students with dyslexia.methods: a quasi-experimental design with a pre-test, post-test, and follow-up with a control group was employed. the population consisted of all elementary school students in tehran, iran, who were diagnosed with dyslexia at learning disability centers in the 2022-2023 academic year. using a convenience sampling method, 30 participants were selected from the target population and randomly assigned to either the experimental (cbpt) or control group. the adaptive behavior scale (abs) and the problem-solving style questionnaire (pssq) were used to assess the participants. the experimental group received eight 60-minute cbpt sessions based on cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques, while the control group received no intervention during this period. repeated measures anova, along with bonferroni post-hoc tests, were employed to analyze the data using spss version 27.0.results: at pre-test, both groups exhibited similar levels of behavioral adjustment (cbpt group: 229.06±22.37; control group: 229.26±25.10) and problem-solving skills (cbpt group: 7.33±1.87; control group: 7.66±2.09). post-intervention, the cbpt group demonstrated a significant improvement in behavioral adjustment (209.86±20.20) compared with the control group (228.40±24.12). in contrast, the control group showed no significant change in behavioral adjustment. regarding problem-solving skills, the cbpt group exhibited a notable increase (10.20±2.36) after the intervention, while the control group demonstrated a slight improvement (7.80±2.30). the results revealed that cbpt significantly improved behavioral adjustment and problemsolving skills in the post-test phase (p<0.001). follow-up results indicated the sustained effectiveness of the cbpt intervention.conclusions: cbpt emerged as an effective intervention for enhancing behavioral adjustment and problem-solving skills in students with dyslexia. the findings highlighted the potential of cbpt to address the social-emotional and academic challenges faced by this population.