Doctor of Philosophy Dissertations

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Browsing Doctor of Philosophy Dissertations by Author "Ireri, Niceta Wanja"

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    Effectiveness of Multimodal Anxiety and Social Skills Intervention in the Treatment of Anxiety and Social Skills Deficits in Children with Autism Sprectrum Disorder
    (Daystar University, School of Applied Human Sciences, 2017-06) Ireri, Niceta Wanja
    Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) that impairs a child`s abilities for social interaction, language development and communication. As these children reach puberty they also develop high levels of anxiety, and their social deficits became more vivid to the public. ASD in Kenya has received very little attention from researchers when compared to other disabilities. The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of Multimodal Anxiety and Social Skills Intervention (MASSI) in reducing social skills deficit and anxiety in children with ASD in two schools in Nairobi County. Parents and teachers of 40 (20 from the experimental school and 20 from a control school) children and adolescents aged between 5-21 years old were used to assess and evaluate these children. They completed questionnaires that assessed the children’s ASD symptoms (ABC), social skills deficits (SRS-2) and anxiety (CASI). The study used the quasi-experimental design. Intervention was done immediately after the baseline data was collected and followed up for six months. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 21.0 and utilized univariate, bivariate and multivariate statistical tests. Results show a significant improvement in the general behaviour of autism p-value 0.000 (95% C.I 5.78, 14.42). There was also a significant decline in social skills deficits p=0.006 (95% C.I 4.97, 27.8). However, anxiety treatment was not significant though the p-value = 0.002, the data did not present evidence that MASSI was effective in the treatment of anxiety as the 95% C.I (0.79, 3.16) includes a zero. Based on these findings, remission of anxiety and social skills deficits is an achievable by MASSI in children and adolescents with ASD in schools.