The effectiveness of painting therapy program based mindfulness on challenging behaviors of high - functioning autism children

The main feature in the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder is the existence of challenging patterns, tendencies, or behaviors. Challenging behaviors are behaviors that endanger or distance the child from social relationships. The question now is, does a painting therapy based mindfulness help with challenging behaviors in children with high function Autism?

The purpose of this study was to evaluating the effectiveness of painting therapy program based mindfulness on challenging behaviors of high-functioning autism children

The research method was experimental with pretest-posttest design with control group. The statistical population of this research is all studets with high function autism the exceptional schools of Ardebil city in the academic year of 2018-2019, among which 30 students with high function autism were selected through available sampling method and was replaced randomly assigned to the experimental group (n= 15) and control group (n= 15). Participants in the experimental group received 10 sessions of painting therapy based mindfulness. Challenging Behavior Scale Bourke-Taylor, Howie & Law (2010), was used to collect data. Data were analyzed using statistical analysis of covariance.

The results showed that the research hypothesis of the effectiveness of a painting therapy based mindfulness program on the challenging behaviors of children with high function autism was confirmed and the children with high function autism in the experimental group compared to students with high function autism in the control group had significantly less challenging behaviors in post-test (p<0/01).

Therefore, it can be concluded that the use of painting therapy program based mindfulness can reduce the challenging behaviors of children with high function autism