Background: Autism spectrum disorder frequently exhibit alexithymia, which is thought to be the cause of issues
with anxiety, despair, and anger that are frequently observed. To reduce emotion regulation impairment and improve
behavioral disturbance, the emotional awareness and skills enhancement program was created. With regard to
alexithymia in children with autism, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of emotion awareness and skills
enhancement program on alexithymia among autistic children. Using one group pre/post, a quasi-experimental
design was used. Subjects: 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. However, less than 25% of them had alexithymia following program intervention, but over half of them
had probable alexithymia. The study concluded that, the implementation of an emotion awareness and skills
enhancement program showed highly significant differences (P < 0.001) regarding all subscales of emotion control
abilities. Therefore, to enhance the capacity of autistic children and those with alexithymia perceive emotions better,
it is recommended that, nurses attend seminars in different approaches, including mindfulness and use them to help
autistic children articulate their emotions more clearly. |
