Comparison of the effectiveness of computer-based cognitive rehabilitation therapy and virtual reality intervention on visual and auditory attention of children with reading learning disorder

Background and Purpose: Reading learning disorder is one of the most common childhood problems, which needs effective interventions.Therefore, the present study aims to compare the effectiveness of computer-based cognitive rehabilitation and virtual reality intervention on visual and auditory attention of children with reading learning disorder.Method: This study was a quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest control group design.The population included all the students with reading learning disorder who had referred to Omid Learning Disability Rehabilitation Clinic in Arak city during 2023.They were screened by Colorado Learning Difficulties Questionnaire (CLDQ).A sample of 30 students were randomly selected and assigned to computer-based cognitive rehabilitation group, virtual reality intervention group and the control group, with 10 members per group.Then interventions were carried out for computer-based cognitive rehabilitation group (twelve 30-min sessions) and virtual reality group (sixteen 30-min sessions).Also, all three groups were assessed by the second edition of Integrated Visual and Auditory Continuous Performance at the pretest and posttest stages.Finally, data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance and Benferroni post-hoc test in SPSS-26.Results: Based on the findings, the computer-based cognitive rehabilitation therapy and virtual reality intervention were both significantly effective in improving the visual and auditory attention of students (P<0.05);however this effect was a little higher in computer-based cognitive rehabilitation group.Conclusion: computer-based cognitive rehabilitation and virtual reality intervention can be used to improve the attention level in children with reading learning disorder.