Machine summary:
"Department of Educational Psychology Isfahan University Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate of effects of sensory integration therapy (SIT) on social interaction and sensory and motor performance in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).
Signs of social deficits in children with autism spectrum disorders include lack of smiling and inadequate use of eye contact, impairment in asking and responding to questions, failure to give and acknowledge compliments during a social exchange (Beidel, Turner, & Morris, 2000), lack of orientation toward a social stimulus, problems in initiating and maintaining social interactions, difficulty in interpreting both verbal and nonverbal social cues, emotions, and facial expression (Celani, Battacchi, &Arcidiacona, 1999), failure to empathy (Dyck, Ferguson, &Shocher, 2001;Yirmiya, Sigman, Kasari, & Mundy, 1992), lack of imitation (Hobson & Lee, 1999), impairments in interpreting nonliteral language such as sarcasm and metaphor, difficulty in sharing affective experience or understanding the perspective of others (Gutstein& Whitney, 2002), failure to spontaneously seek to share enjoyment, interest, or achievements with other people, and a tendency to dwell oncertain topics (Kerbel&Grunwell, 1998; Krasny, Williams, Provencal, &Ozonoff, 2003; Shaked&Yirmiya, 2003; Tager- Flusberg, 2003).
There is empirical evidence that social skill deficits in children with autism contribute significantly to academic and occupational underachievement (Howlin& Goode, 1998), presage mood and anxiety problems later in development (Myles, Bock, & Simpson, 2001; Tantam, 2003), lack of learning opportunities and independence (Koegel, Koegel, & Parks, 1995), occurrence of stereotypy, property destruction, and aggression (Matson, Fodstad, & Rivet, 2009), poor peer acceptance and more social isolation (Bauminger&Kasari, 2000; Chamberlain, 2001), increase in mental health problems (Hartup, 1989), and limitation of the ability to achieve normal developmental milestones and establish satisfying peer and familial relationships (Krasny et al."