Effectiveness of Anat Baniel's Method for Neuro-motor therapy on motor skills and social skills of children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder

the aim of this research was to study the effectiveness of Anat Baniel's Method (ABM) for neuro-motor therapy on motor skills and social skills of high-functioning children with autism.This research was a semi-experimental study with with pre-test and post-test with control group design. The statistical population included all autistic children aged 5-10 years, who were referred to Sadr Psychological Clinic. From among the volunteers, 30 children were selected by convenience sampling method and assigned to experimental and control groups. To collect data, The Ulrich's Motor Skills Test and Social Skills Questionnaire of Gersham and Elliot (1990) were used. The experimental group received Annette Benile's intervention in eight 2-hour sessions, while the control group did not receive this training. In order to analyze the data, multivariate covariance analysis was done. The results showed that there was a significant difference between the mean of displacement motor skills (F=7.22, p=0.013) and Object control (F=8.24, p=0.009) in the experimental and control groups. There was also significant difference between social skills of collaboration (F=7.69, P=0.011), self-expression (F=5.45, P=0.029) and self-control (F=6.78, P=0.016) between the experimental and control group. Generally, based on these findings, it can be concluded that Anat Baniel's Method (ABM) of neuro-motor therapy has increased motor skills (displacement and object control) and social skills (collaboration, self-expression, and self-control) in post-test. According to the results obtained from this intervention method, teaching the framework of this treatment to parents of high-functioning children with autism, improves the social and motor skills of these children