Meta-analysis of the effect of psychological nervous interventions on improving academic performance in students with specific learning disabilities

Introduction: Learning disabilities is one of the neuropsychological disorders that refers to delay and decrease in students' performance in some subjects, such as arithmetic, reading, writing, spelling and speaking, therefore they create a significant gap between students' potential and actual performance. Aim: The aim of this study has been meta-analysis of the effect of psychological nervous interventions on improving academic performance in students with specific learning disabilities. Method: This study has been performed by the meta-analysis method. The statistical population includes dissertations and researches published in scientific-research journals that have been done over the past 10 years (2009-2018) in the field of neuropsychological interventions to improve the academic performance in students with learning disabilities in Iran. Sample size was out of 36 studies which 24 methodologically that they were acceptable and the meta-analysis has been performed on them. The research tool is the meta-analysis checklist. Results: These researches were based on 695 samples and 24 effect sizes. The findings showed, the effect size of the nervous interventions on academic performance improving in students with specific learning disabilities was d =1.58 (p = 0.001). According to Cohen's table this effect size is high. Conclusion: The results indicated that these neuropsychological interventions have had a great effect on improving students' academic performance with specific learning disabilities. Furthermore, it is recommended for the experts to use these interventions on improving academic performance on these students. Moreover, based on different therapeutic approaches, it is important to consider the cultural context in different societies.