The Effect Of Pivotal Response Training On Play Ability Of Preschool Children With Autism

Pivotal response training is an effective natural intervention strategy,which targets at the “pivotal areas” of children with autism.Once effective intervention is carried out,the intervention effectiveness will also be generated in other related fields,so that children will have greater benefits.Compared with typically developing children,children with autism have impaired play ability.The ability to play may be a key skill for children to interact with their peers in early childhood,as well as a key skill for their own development.The abnormal development of play ability will make it difficult for children with autism to participate in appropriate play activities,which will affect the development of their various abilities.Therefore,it is of great significance for this study to explore the effectiveness of pivotal response training in the intervention of play ability in children with autism.In this study,the ABC experiment design of a single subject study was used to intervene in the pivotal area of a pre-school child with autism using pivotal response training,aiming to explore the effectiveness of pivotal response training in the play ability.This study analyzed the behaviors of children with autism through questionnaire,interview and observation to determine the pivotal area of the children with autism and to intervene in it.Finally,visual analysis and C statistics were used to analyze the effectiveness of pivotal response training in the intervention of the play ability of children with autism.The results are as follows:(1)The pivotal area of pivotal response training was self-initiations.After intervention,the frequency of self-initiations of the children with autism increased,showing a good immediate effect and maintenance effect.Intervention can effectively improve the high level and effective self-initiations of the children with autism.(2)After the children with autism received effective pivotal response training,their play ability developed.The simple manipulation and symbolic play showed goodimmediate intervention effect and maintenance effect.The Relational play and functional play had no obvious intervention effect.(3)After receiving effective pivotal response training,the autistic behaviors characteristics of children with autism improved,and problem behaviors in the aspects of sense(S),communication(R)and language(L)decreased.(4)Self-initiations is a meaningful pivotal area in pivotal response training.(5)The order of play ability development in children with autism is roughly the same as that in typically developing children,but relatively backward.