- Submitted by:
- Kristina M. Benza
Convent of the Sacred Heart, Greenwich, CT, USA
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- Teacher:
- Mary Musolino
- Reviewers:
- Candi Hudson, Sicco Beekman, Rohin Mukhi, Robert Maric, Darryn Semeniuk
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Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction,
problems with verbal and nonverbal communication, repetitive behaviors, and limited
activities and interests. Autism is defined as having three different components:
qualitative impairments in social interaction, qualitative impairments in communication,
and restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities
(Diagnostic Criteria from DSM-IV). Autism has been actively researched in the areas of
impaired social interaction and communication. However, there has not been much
research conducted on autism in terms of restricted repetitive and ritualistic behaviors
and activities. There have been some treatments for repetitive and ritualistic behaviors
in the form of prescription drugs that try to treat the behaviors and make them occur
less often. Despite the several successful drugs that treat repetitive behavior, there is
always a need to find new solutions to the problem. This study has allowed for the
design of a social skills group program for autistic children to interact with their peers
and develop their social skills while learning to eliminate less desirable behavior such as
ritualistic behaviors. The study was designed to determine whether this social skills
group works to improve children’s social skills and to reduce their repetitive behaviors.
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