Effectiveness of Play Therapy Based on Sensory Integration on Communication Skills, Social Interaction, Stereotyped Behaviors, and Motor Development in Boys with Autism Spectrum Disorder

 Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by problems in communication, social interactions, restricted interests, and repetitive behaviors. This research was conducted with the aim of the efficacy of play therapy based on sensory integration on communication skills, social interaction, stereotyped behavior, and motor development in boys with ASD.

 This was a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test, post-test and 1.5 months follow-up design with a control group. The statistical population of this research included all boys with ASD from 5 to 12 years in Guilan province in 2020-2021. Based on the inclusion criteria and the purposeful sampling method, 30 children were selected from the Guilan Autism Association as a sample, and randomly in two the experimental group and the control group were placed. Play therapy based on sensory integration was performed individually for 15 sessions of 30-45 minutes in the experimental group. Research tools included the The Gilliam Autism Rating Scale-2 (GARS-2) (Gilliam, 2006) and The Lincoln-Oseretsky Motor Development Scale (Sloan,1955). The data were analyzed using the analysis of variance with repeated measurements and SPSS-27 software.

 The results showed that there is a significant difference between the mean scores of communication skills (P=0.001, F=14.900), social interaction (P=0.001, F=96.099), stereotyped behaviors (P=0.001, 151.348), and motor development (P=0.001, F=797.026) in the post-test of the experimental and control groups and these results continued in the follow-up phase (P<0.05).

 According to findings the results of this research, play therapy based on sensory integration by providing purposeful plays that target the specific sensory needs of each child can increase the adapted response to received stimuli and thus lead to the improvement of the functions of children with ASD.