Effectiveness of pivotal response treatment on communicative and behavioral disorder of 8-12 years-old autistic boys

Background and Objective: Autism is one the most disturbing neurodevelopmental disorders associated with any kinds of communicative problems and physical objects. This study was done to evaluate the effectiveness of pivotal response treatment on communicative and behavioral disorder of 8-12 years-old autistic boys. Materials and Methods: This clinical trial study was done on 24 boys with autism (aged between 8-12 years) in pediatric rehabilitation clinic in Tehran, Iran, during 2011. Patients randomly were divided into two groups: control and pivotal response treatment (PRT). The interventional group was received 20 session of PRT during the two months, but the control did not receive any intervention. All patients were examined in the field of social communicative, interactive disorder and self-stimulation behavior, using autism diagnostic interview revised. Data were analyzed using SPSS-16 and MANCOVA test. Results: The mean±SD of social communicative (18.58±0.45), interactive disorder (17.13±0.46), self-stimulations behavior (1.92±0.36) in interventional group were significantly lower than control with following index, 26.33±0.45, 23.11±0.48 and 6.16±0.37, respectively. Conclusion: This study showed that pivotal response treatment can be useful in communicative behavioral disorder of 8-12 years old autistic boys