Effectiveness of Recreational play program on Social Withdrawal Behavior among Children with Autism

Background: Participation in recreation activities is an important contributor to increase social relationships and acceptance, acquire skills for accessing the community . Aim of the study: to evaluate the effectiveness of a recreational play program on social withdrawal behavior among children with autism. Design: A quasi-experimental design was utilized in this study. Setting: The study was conducted at outpatient clinic at psychiatric health hospital at Benha city, Kaluobia Governorate. Sample: A purposive sample consisting of 60 children with autism Tools: In this study tools were used for data collection: Tool (I): A semi-structured interviewing questionnaire included socio-demographic data and knowledge about recreational play activities. Tool (II) Social withdrawal behavior scale, for children with autism. Results: The main finding of this study indicated that there was an increase in knowledge level and there was highly statistically significant post program implementation among studied autism children, there was highly statistically significant difference for the studied children's total social withdrawal behavior pre and post program implementation and there was high and there was correlation between the total score of the knowledge about recreational activities and the total scores of social withdrawal behavior. Conclusion: Recreational play program had positive effect on reducing social withdrawal behavior. Recommendations: Recreational play activities should be an integral part of treatment program of autistic children.