Arab Educational Information Network

The aim of this research was to identify the effectiveness of counseling play in reducing student social isolation in a primary school mentoring program. A quasi-experimental method was used to achieve the objectives of the research as appropriate for the research variables. From a basic research sample of 100 students, 24 were identified as having higher social isolation scores based on the standards used for the search. The 24 students were then divided into two equal groups: a control group (12 student) and an experimental group (12 student). To verify the homogeneity of the two groups across the key variables, Mohammed’s (2008) social isolation scale of preparation, which has been shown to have reliability and validity on Saudi participants, was used. The experimental group was given a 12-session mentoring program. Each session lasted for 45 minutes. Statistically significant differences were found between the control and the experimental groups for the dimensional measurements. However, statistically significant differences were found also between tribal and telemetric measurements for the experimental group, which indicated that the mentoring program was effective in reducing social isolation. There were no statistically significant differences between the iterative telemetric measurements for the experimental group, indicating that there seems to be a continual improvement in the experimental group. This research highlights the importance of using counseling play in the treatment of anti-social and behavioral disorders in primary school students. (Published Abstract)