Introduction: Today, paying attention to exceptional children has been regarded as an important issue in a way that most advanced countries tried to educate and train this specific part of their populations. In this field, increased cognitive and motor performance is an important goal. The purpose of this study is to study the effect of perceptual-motor exercises on educational performance (reading, writing and mathematics) of students with intellectual disability.
Methodology: This study was quasi-experimental and in a type of pretest and post test with control group. In this investigation, 20 children aged from 7 to 10 years were selected in a multistage randomized way from Tabriz primary schools Tabriz. Inclusion criteria were right handedness, absence of any physical deficiencies, absence of Down syndrome and hyperactivity among students. According to age and IQ the participants were divided in to two groups of perceptual-motor exercise group and control group. Programs were hold in 18 sessions, two sessions per week and 45 minutes for each session. Before the start training and the end of the last session were held pretest and post-test. At the beginning of the session's session and at the end of the last session, Conner 2004 neuropsychological questionnaire was completed by parents and the obtained data were analyzed by MANOVA.
Results: The results showed that perceptual-motor exercise group in reading (P=0.001), writing (P=0.001) and math (P=0.011 performed better than the control group. And therefore, perceptual-motor exercise had a great impact on the executive functions.
Discussion: In general, it can be concluded that the perceptual-motor training has significant impact on the educational achievement of students with intellectual disability.