Social Interaction Skills Development in Children with ASD: A Group-Based Comparative Study

Abstract

Autism is a processing disorder that disrupts the ability to understand and utilize language and significantly poor social skills. During a typical group therapy session, children are facilitated to socialize with their peers, initiate or participate in the group play or express their potential. This study aimed to see the effect of different types of therapy as a team approach (Speech therapy & Occupational therapy) during the group therapy session and apply it during the group therapy sessions, and to see the impact of different age groups in developing social interaction skills. A total of 5 mainstream children with ASD (age range- 6 to 8 and 8-10 years) were selected. 6 sessions of group therapy for 2.5 hours were conducted with OT and ST together. The objectives of the group therapy were rated on four rating scales and compared before and after the session by the parents and therapist. The Wilcoxon signed ranked test was done to find any significant difference between the two groups and the Mann-Whitney U test was to see the impact of different age groups in developing social skills. The finding indicated that the children from both groups showed improvement in social communication with their peers, and show interest to participate; initiating, and taking a turn in storytelling, and various art, and craft activities. However, children in the higher age group showed more improvement in their social skills. This signifies that the transdisciplinary approach in group therapy is a useful treatment strategy to facilitate the children to initiate and interact with their peers. Keywords: Group Therapy, Transdisciplinary approach, Social Skills, Occupational Therapist, Speech Therapist.