چكيده لاتين :
Blindness is the most common sensory disability. It is commonly said
that students who are not able to use their eyes in educational activities
rely on their other senses (Elahi, 2016). One of the most important
components of an effective intervention for students with visual
impairment is proper and appropriate education for communicationwith
the environment and surroundings because visual problems may lead to
decreased communication and a sense of inadequacy and depression (lack
of emotion control). This low self-esteemin students with visual
impairment may influence their active participation in the teaching process
(Norouzi, Ashouri, Ghalamazan and Kalantari, 2018). It may also result in
increased social anxiety, communication problems, and maladaptive
coping skills in the future, so students with visual impairments interact less
with those around them (Arjmandnia, Azimigaroosi, Vatani, and
Kazemirezaei, 1396). Moreover, the lack of communication or ineffective
communication will also cause many problems in these individuals,
including disruption of the communication pattern of dialogue, listening,
and nonverbal skills (Jarrahi& Nejat, 2015). That is, they are unable to
mimic individuals' moods and therefore cannot develop one of the most
important components of the direct communication system, "body
language", and this could reduce their ability to effectively express their
intentions. The intentions of spoken words and the subtleties of nonverbal
communication make a difference (Mohammad Youssef, Sharifi
Daramadi&Aghaei, 1977). Therefore, to improve the communication
skills of students with visual impairment and to develop their adaptation
schemas, interventions that are based on social-communication skills
training should be used. Body language is also one of the programs that
often relies on the theory of bodily cognition (the study of the
multidimensional relationships between cognition, emotions, motivations,
and physical states), which uses external stimuli to activate the external environment. Relevant mental representations, including emotion
regulation and self-concept, can be used as effective interventions and
applications to improve communication skills and improve people's health,
because individuals are more involved in their interactions and
relationships. Words benefit from nonverbal communication (body
language) (Segal, 2011). In the body language training program, one learns
a model of communication skills that uses self-knowledge and, after
learning the techniques of body posture, nodding, facial expressions, voice
and tone, develops adaptive behaviors. As a result, the ability to adopt
communication skills improves, thereby enhancing the social relationships
of students with visual impairments. Therefore, the purpose of this study
was to evaluate the effectiveness of body language training on
communication skills of students with visual impairment in Ahvaz.
Hypothesis
Body language skills training affects the communication skills of
students with visual impairments.
Methods
The present study was a pilot study with pre-test, post-test and control
group design. The study population consisted of all blind students who
were studying in Ahvaz during the academic year 2017-2018. Using
purposive sampling method, 16 blind students of Shiraz School of Ahwaz
were selected and assigned randomly into two experimental and control
groups. The experimental group received 9 sessions of training program.
Attarha and Karami Communication Skills Questionnaire (2010) was used
for data collection.
Findings
Data were analyzed runningMANCOVA withSPSS software. The
results showed that body language skills training had a significant effect
on the communication skills of blind students and the emotion
management subscales (p <0.05).
Discussion and Conclusion
The results showed that body language skills training was significantly
effective and could enhance the students' communication skills, hence the
increase in the total score of communication skills and emotion
management subscale of the experimental group from pretest to posttest.
In explaining this finding, it can be said that since more than 70% of social
interactions involve communication in the non-literal sense of using body
language, acquisition and use of body language can provide the basis for
this form of communication for students with visual impairments (Kosser, 2016). The basis for the formation of cognition and emotion management
in body language skills relates to sensory and motor experiences that in
turn affect psychological states and affect behavioral outcomes and
facilitate social communication (Shafiei and Ghasemzadeh, 2018).
Likewise, the use of sensory-motor dimensions can facilitate intrapsychological experiences. For instance, face shaking induces sadness, or
guilt can be alleviated by physical handwashing after committing immoral
acts (Abbasi et al., 2015). Such effective interpretations of one's body
language affect one's feelings and perceptions of others, and by
establishing an effective social connection, it reduces behavioral problems
that cause self-harm and impede social communication, and ultimately
result in adaptive behaviors.. In general, body language program, which is
one of the interventional methods of the whole body, often emphasizes
conscious regulation of behavior and emotion, and embodies acceptance
of learning and body orientation.
