Middle Eastern Journal of Disability Studies

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Alizadeh H, Hamivand L, Farokhi N, Kazemi F. Psycho-Social Program Designing for Students with Sluggish Cognitive Tempo and its Effectiveness on Socio-Emotional Difficulties. MEJDS 2018; 8 :36-36
URL: http://jdisabilstud.org/article-1-1038-en.html

Abstract
Background & Objective: Sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) characterized by excessive daydreaming, mental confusion, slowness, and low motivation. There are no official criteria available for its clinical recognition. However, researchers have identified the most salient symptoms of (SCT). These are: (1) daydreaming, (2) trouble staying awake/alert, (3) mentally foggy/easily confused, (4) stares a lot, (5) spacey, mind is elsewhere, (6) lethargic, (7) under-active, (8) slow moving/sluggish, (9) doesn’t process questions or explanations accurately, (10) drowsy/sleepy appearance, (11) apathetic/withdrawn, (12) lost in thoughts, (13) slow to complete tasks, and (14) lacks initiative/effort fades. For assisting with differential diagnosis between these two types of attention disorders research conducted with children and adolescents demonstrates that SCT is related to various domains of psychosocial impairment. One of the most consistent findings is that of an association between SCT and social impairment. Multiple studies have documented a significant relation between Symptoms and emotional problems. The lack of research impacts treatment options. Research is ongoing to identify Interventions validated to treat symptoms of ADHD, social anxiety, and other related disorders often used. Little is known to date about the efficacy of medication in treating SCT. SCT is more predictive of Social difficulty, and more strongly associated with internalizing, than externalizing symptoms. The current study aimed to design a psycho-social program for students with sluggish cognitive tempo and to examine its effectiveness on socio-emotional difficulties.
Methods: The study employed a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design. The sample consisted of 60 students selected through convenience sampling. The participants were randomly assigned into experimental and control groups, then and completed the parent questionnaire, SCT inventory and parent Questionnaire for evaluation of development and behavior in 5-15-year-old (FTF). Parent questionnaire is the evaluation of the set of SCT items deemed to be optimal for distinguishing SCT from ADHD-IN (Becker et al., 2015). Also, Becker and colleagues found that 150 items had been used as putative SCT items, which distilled to 18 core SCT items. Meta-analytic findings indicated that 13 of these 18 potential SCT items consistently loaded on an SCT factor as opposed to an ADHD-IN factor. This questionnaire contains questions concerning the skills and behaviors of a child in various Domains of development. The FTF comprises 181 items from the following eight domains: Motor skills, Executive functions (including attention), Perception, Memory, Language, Learning, Social skills, and Emotional /behavioral problems. Each domain contains a series of items. The items consist of a statement expressing that the child has difficulties with a particular task when compared to other children of the same age.  Fifty items that rated (25 items for social skill and 25 items for emotional problems) on a 3-point scale with higher scores corresponding to the better quality of life. The experimental group received 16 sessions of psycho-social program weekly 60-minute. The content of the sessions  determined based on a literature review, consultation with experts, and focus group interviews conducted separately with children and their parents to assess how SCT affect quality of life, strategies employed by youth to cope with SCT distress, the perceived efficacy of specific coping strategies, and areas in which youth in their parents would like help. Sessions within the treatment protocol focused on psychoeducational about SCT during the initial sessions, cognitive/behavioral restructuring targeting and (CLAS) program.
Results: The results of Multivariate and repeated measures confirmed the positive effect of the intervention on social (p<0.001) and emotional problems (p<0.001) difficulties. Social and emotional average developed 12 scores according to the FTF questionnaire higher scores corresponding to the better quality of life and reduced emotional and social problems.
Conclusion: Research has demonstrated the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions for children with sluggish cognitive tempo. Historically, the research has focused on interventions targeting problems in the home or school setting, but more recent research has highlighted the importance of family-school partnerships and conjoint approaches to an intervention involving family and school. Practical approaches to psychosocial intervention consist of strategies to address performance deficits, promote adaptive behavior, and improve children’s self-control and social skills. This study represents the initial step to developing and examining a treatment protocol for children with sluggish cognitive tempo. Lack of SCT prevalence was limitations. We can recommend this psycho-social program to help students with sluggish cognitive tempo in order to ameliorate with their related problems.