Journal of Counseling Research

Objective: The aim of this research was to determine the effectiveness of child- centered play therapy with approach Axline training on hopelessness and loneliness in children with hearing impairment

Method: The research method was quasi-experimental with pre-test and posttest design and control group. The population of this research of female students with hearing impairment studying at primary school in Mashhad City. Thirty students were selected by available  sampling and randomly assigned to one experimental (n=15) and one control (n=15) group. To collect data, Kazdin hopelessness scale and Asher solitude scale were used. The experimental group received 8 sessions of child- centered play therapy with approach Axline training . The data were analyzed by SPSS software, using ANCOVA.

Results: . The data analyses by ANCOVA showed  that there were significantly decrease in mean scores of hopelessness and loneliness in experimental group (P< 0.05).

Conclusions: It can be concluded that child- centered play therapy is an effective intervention method in decreasing on hopelessness and loneliness in children with hearing impairment.