Effects of parent-child painting and creative crafting therapy on preschool children with autism spectrum disorder and their mothers: a prospective randomized controlled trial

• Published in: Zhongguo dang dai er ke za zhi 2021-08, Vol.23 (8), p.779
• Main Authors: Liu, Gui-Hua, Ou, Ping, Huang, Long-Sheng, Xie, Na-Mei, Lin, Jin-Ling, He, Ying-Shuang, Hu, Rong-Fang
• Format: Article
• Language: chi ; eng
• Subjects: Autism Spectrum Disorder - therapy; Child, Preschool; Female; Humans; Mothers; Parent-Child Relations; Parenting; Prospective Studies
• ISSN: 1008-8830
• DOI: 10.7499/j.issn.1008-8830.2103178

To study the effects of parent-child painting and creative crafting therapy on the core symptoms of preschool children with mild-to-moderate autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and the parenting stress and hope level of their mothers. A total of 56 preschool children with mild-to-moderate ASD and their mothers were divided into an experimental group and a control group using the block randomization method, with 28 pairs in each group. The subjects in the control group received an applied behavior analytic intervention and those in the experimental group received parent-child painting and creative crafting therapy in addition to the intervention in the control group. The intervention time was 20 weeks for both groups. Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC), Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF), and Herth Hope Index (HHI) were used to evaluate the core symptoms of children and the parenting stress and hope level of their mothers before and after 20 weeks of intervention. Forty-nine child-mother pairs completed the study (25 pairs in the intervention group and 24 pairs in the control group). The children in the experimental group had significantly lower scores of social interaction, language, social communication, and social motivation and total scores of ABC and SRS compared with those in the control group (