effect of sensory-motor integration trainings on executive functions and social interactions of children with high functioning autism disorder

Background: autism spectrum disorder (asd) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that appears in the early years of childhood. objectives: this study aimed to examine the impact of sensory-motor trainings on the executive functions and social interactions of children with high-functioning autism. methods: the current research was of semi-experimental type and pre-test-posttest research design with control and experimental groups. the sample consisted of n = 50 boys aged 7 to 12 years with high-functioning autism in shiraz. a selective sampling approach was used to randomly allocate 50 high-functioning autistic students into experimental and control groups. initially, a pretest was administered using the coolidge personality and neuropsychological inventory for children and the gilliam autism rating scale. subsequently, the experimental group engaged in 24 sessions of sensory-motor integration trainings three times a week over 8 weeks, while the control group continued with their regular daily activities. data analysis was performed using covariance analysis. results: the findings indicated that therapeutic intervention through sensory-motor integration trainings led to significant enhancements in the executive functions and social interactions of children in the experimental group (p ≤ 0.05). conversely, no improvements were observed in the control group. conclusions: the results of this study suggest that sensory-motor trainings programs can effectively enhance the executive functions and social interactions of children with high-functioning autism.