EFFECTS OF LEARNING GAMES ON IMPROVING COMMUNICATION SKILLS AND SOCIAL RHYTHMIC AUTISTIC CHILDREN OF URMIA CITY

Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder which is characterized by abnorma lities of social interactions, impaired social skills, tendency to be alone, insistence on sameness and ritual routines of the environment, and stereotyped behavior. The main cause and cure for the disorder has not been discovered yet. However, nowadays new techniques are being used to both treat and to improve the performance of the children with autism, one of which is the use of rhythmic games. The present study was aimed to investigate the effects of teaching rhythmic games on improving communication and social skills of autistic children in Urmia city. This quasi-experimental study included a pretest and posttest that was conducted on both the experimental group, and control group. For this purpose, 30 male students were identified and selected using available methods. Then they were divided equally into two groups of 15 participants, i.e. experimental and control. After the treatment the data were gathered from pre -test and post-test and were analyzed using covariance. Regarding the first hypothesis, the results showed a significant difference, at least in terms of one of the dependent variables (social skills factors) (P ≥ 0.0001, F (5, 19=37.96)). Regarding the second hypothesis, the results also showed a significant difference, at least in terms of the dependent variables (communication skills factors) (p ≤ 0.0001, F(5,19)=62.67). The results showed that teaching social communication skills through rhythmic games reduces autistic behaviors and improves social and communication skills in the participants.