Arab Educational Information Network

This study aimed at exploring the effectiveness of a training program based on four levels of play therapy (articulation of speech sounds, vocabulary, sentences- expressions, information and electronic games) on developing expressive language among children with autism spectrum disorder aged (6-10) in Amman, Jordan. The study sample consisted of (80) children with autism spectrum disorder who receive training at the Jordanian Center for Autism during the period from March until the end of May 2017. The (80) children were randomly assigned into two equal groups: experimental and control. The experimental group received (24) training sessions while the control group did not receive any treatment and was taught using the traditional training program used at the Jordanian Center for Autism. Means and standard deviations were calculated to answer the research questions while T test was used to compare the performance of the two groups on the pre and post measurement of the Articulation and Language Disorders Scale. The results of the study showed statistically significant differences between the mean score of the play-based training program in developing the expressive language as a whole and on each sub-dimension in favor of the experimental group. These differences were attributed to the effectiveness of the play-based training program. Various implications and recommendations were suggested based on the results of this study including benefiting from the presented findings in the preparation of training and therapeutic programs for autistic children who suffer from speech language disorders. In addition, using the developed program in training and teaching children with autism spectrum disorder as well as early detection of expressive language difficulties, and finally conduct further research taking into consideration other related variables such as gender, age, and socio-economic status of their family. (Published Abstract)