A Comparative Study the Effect of Painting and Storytelling on Children's Sleep with Autism

Abstract

Introduction:Sleep(resting) has a significant impact on life quality ofautism patients. including mental and physical health.realizing thisrelationship, has a direct impact on clinical benefit, and applyingdifferent methods such as children's painting and storytelling, canbe effective on sleep. Therefore, the aim of present study was to compare the effect of painting and storytelling on sleepquality inchildrenwith autism.

Methods: This study was a quasi-experimental interventional study, conducted in 2020.The researching samples consisted of 35 children with autism referred to the rehabilitation Medical Sciences center of Iran university (12 in storytelling group, and 11 in painting group and in control group). Data collection tools included demographic featuresquestionnaire and CSHQ sleep habits questionnaire which were collected in two phases before and after the intervention. The intervention was performed at least 5 nights a week for one month. Data analysis was done using statistical tests level of 0.05.

Results: The mean age in storytelling, painting and control groups were 7.58 78 1.78, 6.36 75 1.75 and 6.58 78 1.78 respectively. The results indicate that the averagesleepin the two groups of storytelling and painting showed a significant difference (p <0.05). However, no significance difference was observed inaverage sleep for the two pre-test and post-test periods (p> 0.05) The sleepdifference averages for the storytelling and painting groups were notso different (t = 1.64, p = 0.116)

Conclusion:Storytelling and painting were effective hospitalized children sleep improvement. None of Painting and storytelling are superior, both are equallyeffective.According to the results, it recommended to do more interventions, specially using painting and storytelling in children with autism, because it is inexpensive, effective and practical in managing sleep disorders.