Investigation of game teaching with an activity schedule in children with autism spectrum diagnosis

The purpose of this work is to determine the activity schedule and game levels of children suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and the opinions of the mothers regarding the factors affecting the behavior of the children. This research is a semi-experimental work. 2 female and 4 male students took part in this work. The precondition of being unable to play functional games was sought in the students. To determine their levels, the Gilliam Autism Rating Scale – 2 (GARS-2) test was applied to all children at the start of the application. Following this, the preliminary tests were obtained by applying Game Behavior Scale and the students were separated as 3 experiment groups and 3 control groups and the experimental work was commenced. Explanatory pattern method - which is among the mixed methods where quantitative and qualitative methods are used together – was utilized in our work. The mothers of 6 children who continue their education in Special Education and Rehabilitation Center in Istanbul were interviewed and the game behaviors were tried to be explained. The game behaviors of the children according to the mothers and test results were compared. A significant statistical difference showed up in game behavior. Furthermore, the activity schedules of the children, the education conducted after the game education, the generalization with different media and instruments and social participation, functional game, cooperation and leadership which are the lower steps of game education were measured in the last tests. Answers to the lower steps of the purposes were sought. As a result, it has been seen that the education made with an activity schedule caused significant differences in the game behaviors of the children. Furthermore, it has been observed that they could start and continue games and they cooperated in these games. The skill to play games was taught to the children in 25 sessions using the activity schedule. It has been stated in the conclusion of the research that there is no significant difference between the types of the games (physical games, block games, manipulative games and dramatic games) of the children yet they also play the games at home.