Separation anxiety disorder is the most common childhood anxiety disorder, so the present study was conducted to compare the effect of teaching rhythmic movement games and play therapy based on parent-child relationships on emotional selfregulation and separation anxiety of first-grade students in Malayer City. This research was a field experiment with a pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The statistical population of this research was all the students of the first grade of primary school in Malayer City in the academic year 1401-1402. They were randomly selected by purposeful sampling among the primary schools using the separation anxiety screening questionnaire, the emotional self-regulation questionnaire, and a structured clinical interview. They were assigned to two intervention groups and one control group. Two types of play therapy interventions were implemented, and finally, the post-test data were collected one week after the interventions. In general, the results showed that both play therapy interventions significantly reduced separation anxiety symptoms and increased emotional selfregulation in students (p< 0.05). However, the play-therapy intervention based on the parent-child relationship was more effective in reducing the symptoms of separation anxiety than teaching rhythmic movement games. Therefore, it is suggested that play therapy techniques be taught to counselors and teachers of elementary schools and preschool teachers so that they can use them in dealing with anxious children in their classes.
