Effect of rhythmic exercise on memory and attention in children with intellectual disability

Background & Purpose: Increasing cognitive and motor performance is an importantgoal. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of rhythmic exercise on memory and attention in children with intellectual disability.
Methodology: This study was quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest and control group. In this study, 20 children aged 7 to 10 years old were multistage randomly selected from the 600 primary school student’s schools in the city of Tabriz. These two groups according to age and IQ were homogeneous in rhythmic practices and control group. Programs were hold in 18 sessions and two sessions per week and each session was 45 minutes. Before the start training and the end of the last session were held pre-test and post-test. Before the start of the session and at the end of the last session of the questionnaire was completed neuropsychological Conner 2004 by parents for analyze data dependent test and in dependent with a significant level of 0.05 were used.
Results: The results showed that rhythmic practices groupafter the intervention period in memory (p= 0.002) and attention (p= 0.003) performed better than the control group. Rhythmic exercise group than the control group had a greater impact on the memory and attention.
Conclusion: According to the results obtained it is suggested these movements were held into physical education program, extracurricular and take home.