Behaviour Therapy for Improving Social and Communication Skills of Autistic Children

Abstract

Autism is one of five Neuro - Developmental Disorders under the umbrella of Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) which is characterized by impaired social interaction, problems with verbal and nonverbal communication, and unusual, repetitive, or severely limited activities and interests. Experimental Research was conducted to study the effectiveness of Behaviour Therapy in Groups among Autistic children, to improve their Socialization, Communication Skills and to reduce Self Injurious Behaviours. The students were introduced to a program comprising of activities to improve Compliance, Attending/ Orienting to Social Stimuli-Responding to one's Name, Joint Attention - Supported, Coordinated, Imitation- Motor and Vocal Actions and Learning Social Rules. They were made to acquire the skills through reinforcement and operant conditioning. A paired samples t test was conducted to compare the understanding of the target skills at the pretest and post test conditions. Results showed that the Behaviour Technology applied was statistically significant at 95% confidence level, indicating that the intervention has brought effective changes in the behaviour of the children