Designing the educational plays based on theory of mind and investigating its effectiveness on promoting the level of social adequacy and self-esteem in children with mild intellectual disability

Introduction: The poor theory of mind is one of the basic defects of children with intellectual disability, which causes a major dysfunction in most of their functions. Objective: This study aimed to design the educational plays based on theory of mind and determine its effectiveness on social adequacy and self-esteem in children with mild intellectual disability. Method: This study was semi-experimental with pretest-posttest design and a two-month follow-up with a control group. The population was all students with mild intellectual disability in Tehran in second elementary school who were studying in exceptional schools for the 2022-2023 school year. The sample consisted of 28 male students who were included in the study using convenience sampling and randomly divided into the experimental and control group. The instruments included Theory of Mind test of Steerneman (1999), Social Competence Scale of Felner (1990), and Self-Esteem Scale of Rosenberg (1965). The intervention program was implemented on the experimental group in 24 sessions of 90 minutes. Moreover, a follow-up was performed two month after the sessions. The data were analyzed by repeated measures analysis of variance. Findings: The results showed that the educational program of this study has good validity and reliability. Moreover, it has a significant effect on improving theory of mind, social adequacy and self-esteem (p< 0.001), and this effect was sustainable after two month. Conclusion: Parents, teachers, psychologists and rehabilitation centers can use the plays of this educational program to improve theory of mind, social adequacy and self-esteem of children with mild intellectual disability.