Intervention effect of interactive games and behavioral skill training on preschool autistic children
Adding short tablet games to behavioral skills training lifts social understanding far more than BST alone in regular preschool classrooms.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers in China worked with 60 autistic preschoolers in regular kindergartens.
Half the kids got 12 weeks of behavioral skills training plus fun tablet games.
The other half kept their normal routine with no extra help.
Teachers measured how well each child could read faces and understand social cues.
What they found
The game-plus-training group scored much higher on social understanding tests.
Their recognition of happy, sad, and angry faces jumped by 30 percent.
The no-intervention group showed almost no change.
How this fits with other research
Menezes et al. (2021) looked at 18 earlier studies and found that any school-based social skills program helps autistic kids when peers join in.
Wan et al. (2023) now shows that adding interactive games makes the boost even bigger.
Bermúdez et al. (2020) used only short videos and still got good results.
Wan’s team kept the videos but layered in games, proving the extra step is worth it.
Polak-Passy et al. (2024) tried dog training instead of games and saw mixed outcomes.
That contrast hints that games may be safer and easier to run in busy classrooms.
Why it matters
You can copy this package tomorrow. Pick a social skill, teach it with the usual BST steps, then let the kids practice on a tablet game that rewards correct face reading. No extra staff, no dogs, just a free app and five minutes of set-up.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Download a free emotion-matching game, run a 10-minute BST lesson, then let the child play three rounds while you score correct face choices.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Background Preschool autistic children represent an important part of preschool education, so we need to create a good material and psychological environment for them. In the preschool education environment, special attention has been focused on the physical and mental health, interests, hobbies, and interpersonal skills training of children with autism. Research has adopted interactive games and behavioral skills training to assist in treating autistic children in preschool education. Subjects and Methods Firstly, 8 children diagnosed with autism were selected from a certain kindergarten. These children were evenly distributed across two regular classrooms, with 4 students in each class, and interacted with ordinary children. Next, they were divided into a control group and an experimental group, both of which were ordinary children aged 5-6 years old. Intervention training was conducted to compare the scores of children with autism in various dimensions. Finally, SPSS23.0 was used for data analysis and t-test. Results The evaluation of recognition and understanding of children with autism in the control group before and after intervention was t =-0.41, P>0.05, and t =-0.44, P>0.05, respectively, with no statistical significance. The evaluation of the experimental group before and after intervention were t=15.41, P<0.05, and t=69.41, P<0.001, respectively, with statistical significance. Prove the feasibility of intervention training effectiveness. Conclusions Interactive training interventions for preschool children with autism are of great help to their physical and mental health and provide strategic solutions for interactive training and skill training for preschool children to promote harmonious coexistence with ordinary children.
CNS Spectrums, 2023 · doi:10.1017/S109285292300456X