Original Research Article
Year: 2023 | Month: March | Volume: 13 | Issue: 3 | Pages: 252-257
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52403/ijhsr.20230328
Enhancing Social Communication Skills in Children with Special Needs - A Comparative Group Study in the Early Intervention Unit
Rajeev Ranjan1, Tabinda Naqvi2, Swetlana Singh Gaur2, Priya Mishra2
1Assistant Professor (Sp & Hg), Composite Regional Centre for Skill Development, Rehabilitation & Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (CRC), Lucknow, UP, India
24th Year BASLP Internship Student, Dr Shakuntala Misra National Rehabilitation University, Lucknow, UP, India
Corresponding Author: Rajeev Ranjan
ABSTRACT
Early intervention is a crucial component in assisting children with special needs to reach their full cognitive, emotional, and social potential. As early childhood is a crucial period of development for both the brain and the child's overall growth, interventions must begin at this time. Most children with special needs lack in their social and communication skills. This may be due to non-exposure to early enrolment in the play school or early intervention where they can learn from their peer. Group therapy as a part of early intervention gives better results in improving children's social communication skills. Therefore, this study aimed to see the impact of group therapy on the social communication skills of children with special needs in the early intervention unit. Twenty children, 10 males, and 10 females, aged 0–6 years, attending CDIC EIU were selected for group therapy at CRC, Lucknow. These had a provisional diagnosis of ASD, GDD, ID, and HI. Pre and Post scores were measured for the 4 selected domains, i.e., social skills, joint attention, receptive, and expressive language age by available tests and scales. Various studies show the impact of group therapy on social communication skills in children. Similarly, in the current study, the social communication of children got better with increased post-therapy scores after undergoing group therapy. The significant difference found through ANOVA was appropriate within the group and was approaching the target value among the group. Hence, this indicates a positive impact of group therapy on social communication in children.
Key words: [Social-communication, Children, Special needs, Group therapy, ASD, Autism, Early Intervention]