Tiempo de Juego/Tiempo Social": un Programa para Enseñar Habilidades Sociales a Preescolares con Autismo

Supporting social and communicative competences is a priority in any intervention with children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The aim of this study is to analyse the effects of the “Play Time/Social Time” programme on both competences. Two girls and seven boys who attended the last course of Early Childhood Education participated in the research. Four of them had a diagnosis of ASD. A pre-post design was used. The Teacher Impression Scale and the Communicative Subscale of the Adaptive Behaviour Assessment System-II (ABAS-II) were used to assess social and communicative skills. The results showed a significant improvement of children’s communicational and social development. The factors that could have conditioned the programme effectiveness as well as the possible utility of the intervention to teach social and communication skills in an early universal way are discussed.