THE EFFECT ON SELF TALK ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS AND HEALTH EDUCATION OF STUDENTS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES
Keywords:
self talk, health education, reading comprehension, intellectual disabilitiesAbstract
The purpose of the present investigation was to examine if self-talk may affect the reading comprehension and knowledge on health education of students with mild mental retardation. The participants were 22 male and female adolescents with mild mental retardation and borderline intelligence, aged 12-22 years. They were randomly assigned to an experimental (N=15) and a control group (N=7). The experimental group participated in an intervention program, based on the psychological technique of self-talk, aiming on improving reading comprehension skills and increasing knowledge on health education issues. After the intervention, the performance of the experimental group on reading comprehension tests and health education knowledge tests was significantly improved (p<.05), while in the control group, no performance change was noticed. These findings suggest that self talk can increase the reading comprehension and the knowledge of health education in students with mild mental retardation.
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