Development & Implications of Culturally Based Digital Cognitive Remedial Therapy (CRT) for Developing Communication Skills for Children with Mild Intellectual Disability (ID) in Pakistan

Abstract

The aim of the current study was to Develop and implement Culturally Based Digital Cognitive Remedial Therapy (CRT) for developing communication skills among children with Mild ID, Pakistan.Communication skills are associated with the children’s cognitive, emotional, social and development perspectives. While Children with mild ID often acquire basic language and self-care skills, they frequently exhibit deficits in expressive and receptive communication, pragmatic language use. In the present study Mixed Method Research Design has been used with integration of need analysis conducted through survey and Single Subject Experimental Design (SSED) to assess the effectiveness of Cognitive Remedial Therapy, techniques in culturally adapted digital way to enhance communication skills among children with Mild Intellectual Disability. Furthermore, the need analysis through survey method provided individual or population based insight about stakeholders perspective and other contextual factors that should be integrated in the therapy, while the SEED provided in depth analysis of the effectiveness of the therapy at the individual level. The sample of N=20 children were recruited in the study. Demographic information and Language Assessment form and ABA has been completed before implementing the intervention. Pre and Post analysis has been conducted to check the effectiveness of the intervention among children aged 6 to 13 years with Mild intellectual disability, Pakistan. The intervention has been implemented while using the HeadAPP Neurvitals application consisted on 30-40 sessions, with 3 sessions every week per children.  The language domain revealed the most robust gains. “Word it,” “Structure it,” and “Sequence it” all achieved large trends s (SD= 12.98,SD=11.41, and SD=5.39, respectively), with dramatic increases from baseline to post intervention (“Sequence it” improved from M = 47.10 to M = 94.90). Moreover, “Reason it” and “Vita lang” also displayed significant improvement with moderate trends. These outcomes emphasize the intervention’s strong impact on linguistic processing, expressive communication, and logical reasoning skills.