The Effectiveness of Play Therapy based on Cognitive - Behavioral Therapy on Challenging Behaviors of High Functioning Autistic Children.

The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of play therapy based on cognitive-behavioral therapy on challenging behaviors of high-functioning autistic children. The research method was semi-experimental with pre-test and post-test design with control group. The statistical population of this study was all children aged 8 to 12 years old with autism spectrum disorder in health care centers of Arak in 2018. In this study, 16 high-functioning autistic children were selected by available sampling method using a questionnaire for measuring the range of autism spectrum disorder. They were randomly assigned to two groups of experimental (8 subjects) and control (8 subjects) groups. The Revised Scale of Challenging Behaviours of Bodfish, Symons, Parker & Lewis (2000), was used to assess challenging behaviors. The experimental group received 10 cognitive-behavioral treatments in a 10-minute session during a one-month period, while the control group did not receive such an intervention. At the end, the two groups were evaluated again. Data were analyzed using covariance analysis. The findings of this study showed that play therapy based on cognitive-behavioral therapy has a significant role in reducing the challenging behaviors of high-functioning autistic children.