The Effectiveness of an Applied Behavior Analysis Program on Autistic Children’s Emotional and Social Skills

With the aim of achieving a method to develop and increase the social, communication, and daily life skills of independent children, the present researcher investigated the effect of the applied behavior analysis method on these children’s social and emotional skills. In terms of purpose and data acquisition, the research was applied and semi-experimental, with control and experimental groups and a covariance analysis model. This study’s statistical population consisted of 48 volunteer boys aged 4 to 11 years old who resided in Tehran between 2020 and 2021. Of this population, 24 boys were selected and assigned to two control and experimental groups (12 individuals in each group). For data collection, the Social and Emotional Skills Questionnaire for Preschoolers (KIST) was utilized. Individually, the applied behavior analysis program was administered to the experimental group in 8 one-hour sessions twice per week. Using SPSS-24 software and multivariate covariance analysis, the data were analyzed. The results demonstrated that the applied behavior analysis program improved the social and communication skills of bereaved children as well as their day-to-day functioning (p<0.05). The effects of the applied behavior analysis program on the social and affective skills of the children were stable and stable in the follow-up phase, whereas the communication skills decreased compared to the post-test.