The Effects of Caregiver Empowerment Program Combined with Web Application on Social Skills of Preschool Children with Autism

Abstract

Purpose: To study the effects of caregiver empowerment program combined with web application on social skills of preschool children with autism.

Design: Quasi-experimental research pretest-posttest control group.

Methods: The samples were consisted of fifty preschool children with autism, aged 3-6 and their caregivers in the inpatient ward of Rajanukul Institute, selected by inclusion criteria, matched pair and then, equally randomly assigned to an experimental group and a control group with 25 subjects in each group. The experimental group was received the caregiver empowerment program for 4 weeks. The control group was received usual nursing care. The experimental instrument was the caregiver empowerment program combined with web application on social skills of preschool children with autism. Data were collected by using the social skills of preschool children with autism assessment and the caregiver empowerment assessment. Their CVI were .89 and .90, respectively. Their Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were .97 and .90, respectively. The paired samples t-test was used in data analysis.

Results: The mean score of social skills of preschool children with autism after using the caregiver empowerment program was significantly different from receiving this program at the .05 level and the mean score of social skills of preschool children with autism after using the caregiver empowerment program was significantly different from the control group at the .05 level.

Conclusion: The use of the caregiver empowerment program combined with the web application resulted in differences in the mean social skills scores of preschool children with autism, which was according to hypothesis