Effectiveness of lego therapy training program on social interaction and stereotypic behaviors in children with autism

Aim. The aim of present study was to investigate the effectiveness of lego therapy training program on the social interaction and stereotypic behaviors in children with autism. Methods. The present research was a semi-experimental study with pre-test, post-test design and control group. The participants were 22 children with autism from Tehran city in 2017-2018 academic year who were selected by convenient sampling method. Subjects were divided into experiment and control groups randomly, each group consisting of 11 children. The experiment group participated in 16 sessions of lego therapy training program (twice a week; each session lasted 60 minutes), while the control group did not. The tool utilized was Gilliam Autism Rating Scale (GARS). Multivariate analysis of covariance was used by SPSS24 for analyzing the data. Results. The results showed that lego therapy training program had a significant effect on the social interaction and stereotypic behaviors children with autism. Conclusion. The lego therapy training program can increase social interaction and decrease stereotypic behaviors of children with autism; Therefore, planning for make use of this program is of particular importance.