Effectiveness of Intervention Based on the Applied Analysis of Behavior in the Increase of Social-relational Skills and Decrease of Stereotyped Behavior in Autistic Children

Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and verbal and non-verbal communication, and by restricted, repetitive or stereotyped behavior. Therefore, the research purpose is to investigate the effectiveness of intervention based on the applied analysis of behavior in the increase of social-relational skills and decrease of stereotyped behavior in autistic children. Therefore, a semi-experimental method with pretest, post-test and control group design was employed. A group of 40 children diagnosed with autism was selected through random and convenience sampling and assigned to the experimental and control groups. The experimental group underwent 6 month of applied analysis of behavior (30 hours of weekly sessions). It’s noteworthy that the groups were tested in terms of stereotyped behavior, social interaction and relationship prior to and subsequent to the training. Covariance analysis indicated that, intervention based on applied analysis of behavior is effective in the increase of social-correlational skills and decrease of children’s stereotyped behavior. The results of follow-up study indicated that, the results are stable even after 6 months. It seems that, the intervention based on applied analysis of behavior can be effective in the increase of socialrelational skills, decrease of stereotyped behavior and higher adjustment of children diagnosed with autism.