Family-based tele-intervention of SPARK program on motor proficiency and severity of autism symptoms in children with high functioning autism spectrum disorder: A pilot study

The aim of the present study was to evaluate any possible effects of family-based tele-intervention of the SPARK program for improving the motor proficiency and reducing the severity of autism symptoms in children with high-functioning ASD. This research was a quasi-experimental study with pretest-post test design without a control group. Nine families of children with high-functioning ASD were recruited from rehabilitation centers for children with ASD in Tehran, Isfahan, Ghods and Kermanshah cities. The tele-rehabilitation procedure was administered by the parent to their children during 24 sessions each 45 minutes for 8 weeks. The Gilliam Autism Rating Scale (GARS) (Gilliam, 1995) and short form of Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (BOTMP) (Bruininks, 1978) were used for data collection. Data were analyzed using pair t test. The results demonstrated that (p< 0.5) family-based tele-intervention of SPARK program has significant effect in motor proficiency, but this effect was not significant in reducing the severity of autism symptoms in children with high-functioning. The results of this study showed that family-based tele-rehabilitation has appeared to be an effective intervention to reduce motor problems in children with autism spectrum disorders.