The effect of (attention and Mind Reading skills) program on information processing efficiency in a sample of children with autism spectrum disorder in central Erbil, Kurdistan-Iraq

Abstract

The current study aims to investigate the effects of (attention and Mind Reading skills) program on information processing efficiency in a sample of children with autism spectrum disorder.

       The research population consists of all the children diagnosed with mild to moderate autism spectrum disorder in the public and private centers aged between (6-8) years in central city of Erbil for 2022-2023.

       To achieve the goals, 62 children were chosen as research sample to extract the psychometric properties of research tools, and 7 children were chosen as experiment group. The experimental methodology was chosen as it is suitable for the nature if the current problem and the nature of the sample. The researchers depended on one group experimental design with pre and post-test, in order to discover the effects of the program on information processing efficiency as a dependent variable. The researchers depended on tools such as: Goddard scale for children IQ (board of shapes) (Henry H. Goddard,1957), Gilliam rating scale which was standardized and translated to Arabic by (Mohammed and Mohammed 2020) which is used to diagnose intensity of autism and its symptoms and (Task Theory of mind scale) by (Sayed And Rushdy,2011). The researchers prepared the (attention and Mind Reading skills) program, attention and information processing tests. The statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze the data according to the research goals, and the results were:

There is a large effect of the (attention and Mind Reading skills) program on information processing efficiency in a sample of children with autism spectrum disorder.