The Effectiveness of JASPER Program Tasks for Early Intervention in Developing Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Skills

Abstract

The current study aims to use JASPER program components; joint attention, symbolic play, engagement, and regulation to develop the skills of children with autism and reduce the level of disorder. The study sample consisted of 7 children (3 males and 4 females) in addition to their mothers, the children were enrolled in one of the centers for people with disabilities in the United Arab Emirates. The chronological ages of the sample were between 6 to 8 years. The study used a set of tools to achieve the objectives of the study, including the scale of Jasper tasks for Early Intervention, the autism disorder scale, and a training program prepared by the researcher. The results of the study confirmed the effectiveness of the training program in improving the average scores of the experimental group children on JASPER scale for the dimensions and total score. The results also revealed that there were statistically significant differences between the mean scores before and after the application of the training program for the experimental group children for the dimensions and the total degree of autism disorder diagnosis scale in the direction of the post-test. The results also showed that there were no statistically significant differences between all of post-tests and follow-up tests (a month after the end of the program application). Keywords: Tasks, Program, JASPER, Early intervention, Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.