objective: The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of active music therapy and play therapy on social skills and eye contact in 6-12 year old boys with level 2 autism in Tehran rehabilitation centers. Method: The eye contact rate of the participants was measured using an eye tracker, and their social skills were measured by the Gershom & Elliot Social Skills Scale (SSRS). The samples were randomly divided into three groups: music therapy (M), play therapy (P) and control group (C). For Group M, there were 12 sessions of active music therapy intervention and Group P received the same number of play. For group C, only educational training sessions were held in the rehabilitation centers. Then eye contact and social skills of all three groups were re-measured. Results: Comparison of the eye contact and social skills of the three groups post intervention, using the ANCOVA test in the SPSS 23 software, showed a significant difference between the results of the three groups in both eye contact and social skills (p<0/05). Tukey post hoc test revealed significant improvement in eye contact in the music group but no change in the play and control groups. So no significant improvement was observed in social skills of the music and play groups but no change in the control group. The effect size of eye contact was 0.079 in the play therapy group and 0.515 in the music therapy group. The effect of social skills in the play and music therapy groups was 0.304.Conclusion: Based on the findings, it can be concluded that music therapy is effective in improving both eye contact and social skills, but play therapy only improves social skill so.
rahmanian M, oraki M, amini shirazi N, farzaneh M. Comparison of the Effectiveness of Play Therapy and Active Music Therapy on Eye Contact and Social Skills in Level 2 Autistic Boys. JOEC 2021; 21 (3) : 10 URL: http://joec.ir/article-1-1271-en.html