Objective Disability is a general concept that relate to a person's deprivations resulting from defects (disorder) disability. In other words, any lack or reduction in equal level of opportunity to participate in social life is called disability. As a result of increasing population of physical and motor disabled, which is mainly caused by genetic factors, congenital and adventitious such as trauma, accidents, diseases and aging, active social participation of a large number of people will be restricted, but on the other hand, considering ICF classification which emphasize on participation of people with disabilities, the importance of addressing the social participation of people with physical and motor disabilities will be more prominent. Thus helping the individuals with physical and motor disabilities develop their skills for good life, increased confidence in dealing with problems and also help them in development of emotions and social skills seems necessary for successful social participation. So the purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of social skills training on social participation among physical and motor disabled people in educational Raad charity rehabilitation complex.
Materials & Methods This research was semi-experimental with pre-test and post-test pattern and control group. The statistical population in this study included all students of Raad center (195 members of which 120 were females and 75 males). Sixty physical and motor disabled members were selected randomly and divided into two groups (intervention and control). Social skills program was implemented in the experiment group in 8 sessions, each of 90 min duration. To assess the social participation of participants, the social participation and demographic questionnaires were filled by the participants before the first session and after the last session. Validity and reliability for social participation were 0.788 and 0.87, respectively. The data were analyzed by software SPSS version 16. Descriptive statistics such as mean, frequency, standard deviation, and inferential statistics including Mann-Whitney U test, Levene’s test, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, t-dependent and independent t-tests and covariance (ANCOVA) were used
Results Significant differences were found between total social participation before and after social skills training (p<0.05) and between total social participation and the institutional and non-institutional subscales for trained and untrained participants (p<0.05).
Conclusion According to the results of this study, holding training sessions on social skills can be effective for the physical and motor disabled people. So, it is likely that the widespread use of this intervention by professionals can relieve the limitations of participation of people with physical and motor disability.