The Emotion Awareness and Skills Enhancement Program for Alexithymia among Children with Autism

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder sufferers frequently exhibit alexithymia, which is thought to be the cause of issues with anxiety, despair, and anger that are frequently observed. By reducing emotion regulation impairment and improving behavioral disturbance, the Emotional Awareness and Skills Enhancement program was created. With regard to alexithymia in children with autism, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of emotion awareness and skills enhancement program on alexithymia in autistic children. Using one group pre/post, a quasi-experimental design was used. Children's outpatient clinics at the Psychiatric and Mental Health Hospital in Benha City, Qalyubia Governorate, provided a purposeful sample of fifty children with autism diagnoses. Data were gathered using the structured interview questionnaire and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale. The primary research results showed that, prior to program intervention, slightly over three-quarters of the children in the study exhibited alexithymia. Less than 25% of them had alexithymia following program intervention, but over half of them had probable alexithymia. The study concluded that based on the results of the implementation of an emotion awareness and skills enhancement program, all subscales of emotion control abilities showed a highly significant difference (P < 0.001). Therefore, to enhance the capacity of autistic children and those with alexithymia perceive emotions better, it may be recommended that nurses attend seminars on different approaches, including mindfulness, and use them to help autistic children articulate their emotions more clearly