Developing and Assessing the Effectiveness of Painting Therapy Program Based on Mindfulness on Social Skills of High-Functioning Autism Students

The purpose of this study was to developing and assessing the effectiveness of painting therapy program based on mindfulness on social skills of high-functioning autism students. This study was experimental with pretest-posttest design with control group.Statistical population of the study all students with high function autism the exceptional schools of Ardebil city in the academic year of 2018-2019, among which 30 students with high function autismwere selected through available sampling method and was replaced randomly assigned to the experimental group (n= 15) and control group (n= 15). The research was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, a painting therapy based mindfulness program based on theoretical literature, research backgrounds, and programs was developed in ten sessions and its content validity was evaluated and validated by professors and experts. Participants in the experimental group received 10 sessions of painting therapy based on mindfulness. Eliot and Gresham Social Skills Questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were analyzed using statistical analysis of MANCOVA. The results showed that students with high function autism in the experimental group compared to students with high function autism in the control group had significantly more social skills in post-test (p<0.01). Therefore, it can be concluded that the use of developing program painting therapy based on mindfulness can increasing social skills of students with high function autism.