Context: The present study is about computer assisted learning (CAI) and how it facilitates early math learning in 4-6-year-old children. Aim: Trying to demonstrate how changes in estimation accuracy are a result of different behavioral or action organizations during playing with a numerical board game on a tablet PC. Settings and Design: A pre-posttest design and a training intervention was used. Statistical Analysis Used: In order to measure childrens' estimation accuracy (N = 179), the percent absolute error scores were calculated and compared in a pretest and a posttest. Further, each child's best fitting linear function (R΂lin) was computed in order to find out whether children handled numbers in a linear way. Materials and Methods: A number line estimation task with a 0-10 interval was used in both the pretest and the posttest. For the intervention training, each child received a tablet computer and could play on a digital number line for four 15-min sessions. Children's hand and finger movements were manipulated during instruction in different conditions: Freely jumping or pointing. Results : Children's estimation accuracy increased after playing with the digital number line. However, the way in which behavior was organized during the training period resulted in different accuracy performances. Conclusions: These results show that minor changes in the behavioral system can lead to significantly different learning gains and that numerical knowledge is embodied in the system the child mobilizes.

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The present research was aimed at investigating the relationship between metacognitive strategies and self-concept with social compatibility of high school student in the city of Karaj. The statistical population of the study included all male and female high school students of the city of Karaj in the educational year of 2014-2015. The sample size was 100 people selected through simple random method. Tools for collecting data included the metacognitive test  (MSLQ) Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, Wilson self-concept, and the California personality assessment. The research falls under the correlation research. Results from the analysis of data implicated that there was a meaningful relationship between social compatibility and self-concept while no such meaningful relation did exist between social compatibility and metacognitive strategies. Meantime, self-concept was the only factor that was capable to predict social compatibility, whereas metacognitive strategies were not predicting social compatibility.

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Aim: The present study investigated the effects and temporal sustainability of the gains of skill-based decoding and spelling instruction (n = 33) with 7-8-year-old students in an International School. Materials and Methods: The 12-week long program with 2 × 40 min sessions per week was repeated twice within one academic year. G1 (n = 11) received training in the first, G2 (n = 11) in the second semester. G3 (n = 11), who did not receive any additional training to their mainstream curriculum, served as a second control group. Results: The findings suggest that direct instruction of decoding appears to be efficient, moreover, appears to have an indirect effect on sentence comprehension. Some independence was observed between decoding and spelling skills in the students' response to training. Second posttests 4 months after the training stopped revealed stable gain on all three variables of decoding, spelling, and sentence comprehension with G1. Conclusion: The study concludes that explicit, focused instruction of decoding and spelling in a small group setting has undeniable benefits.

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Background: It is estimated that 5-10% of Pakistani population is suffering from thyroid disorders. Depression and anxiety are two very common symptoms of hyperthyroidism and patients with these symptoms are often misdiagnosed as having any psychiatric disease. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of depression and anxiety among hyperthyroid patients in our population of Karachi, Pakistan. Methods: Cross-sectional study was conducted in which 200 patients visiting the outpatient department of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi, Pakistan, were inducted. Patients were classified as hyperthyroid and euthyroid. Convenient sampling technique was used. Data collection tool was a questionnaire in which sociodemographic questions and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale were included. Logistic regression was used to determine the association of depression and anxiety with sociodemographic factors among hyperthyroid patients. Odds ratio (OR), 95% confidence interval (CI) and P values were calculated. Results: Depression and anxiety among hyperthyroid patients were found to be 84% and 58%, respectively. In multivariate analysis for hyperthyroid patients, age group of 18-40 years and females were more than two times (OR = 2.716, CI = 0.886-8.332), (OR = 2.587, CI = 0.827-8.095) depressed, compared to age group of 41-60 years and males, respectively, after adjusting for covariates. Similarly, females were found to have anxiety more than one times (OR = 1.771, CI = 0.720-4.356) compared to males while age group of 18-40 years was 30.5% (OR = 0.695, CI = 0.286-1.689) less likely to have anxiety compared to age group of 41-60 years. Conclusion: The results of this study revealed that depression and anxiety are a common finding among hyperthyroid patients. Therefore, hyperthyroidism should always be considered in the differential diagnosis of patients who present primarily with neuropsychiatric symptoms.

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Hope has a vital role in human health and well-being. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of positive couple therapy on improving satisfaction of mothers of children with special needs. A quasi-experimental method with pretest, posttest, and follow-up with control group was adopted in this study. Among mothers of children with disabilities in Isfahan, 24 students were selected through purposive sampling and then randomly assigned to experimental and control groups (n = 12 for each group). Snyder's Adult Hope Scale was used for collecting data. Results showed hope of mothers of children with special needs who received the intervention had significantly increased. However, it can be concluded that couple therapy with positive prospective is effective in increasing hope of mothers of children with special needs in Isfahan.

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