Efficacy of Group Social Skills Training in Alexithymia of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) experience serious difficulties in identifying, explaining and adjusting to their own and other people’s emotions. A considerable amount of researches has been devoted to finding effective strategies for addressing the problem. The present study examines effectiveness of group social skills training in dealing with alexithymia in male patients aged 10 to 12 who were diagnosed with autism. The study used a quasi-experimental design with a pre-test and post-test and a control group. The sample included 14 autistic boys who were selected through convenience sampling and randomly assigned to the experimental and the control group (7 each). The Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children (Reiffe, Oosterveld and Meerum, 2006) was used for assessing the children in the pre- and post-tests. The experimental group received seven 45-minute sessions of social skills training adopted from Ozonoff (2002). The data were analyzed using repeated measures in SPSS-17 software. The results showed a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in the post-test phase, with the former showing a significant decrease in alexithymia. The study suggests that social skills training programs could be used in dealing with alexithymia in autistic children and in designing curricula for them.