Abstract Objective To study the clinical effect of integrated sandplay therapy in preschool children with Asperger syndrome (AS). Methods A total of 44 preschool children with AS were randomly divided into an experimental group and a control group, with 22 children in each group. The children in the control group were given routine training, and those in the experimental group were given integrated sandplay therapy in addition to the routine training. The treatment response was assess by the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), emotional recognition tools and changes in sandplay theme characteristics after 6 months of treatment. Results Before intervention, there were no signifcant differences between the two groups in the total score of SRS, the score of each factor of SRS, and correct rates of facial expression recognition of the upright position, inverted position, upper face and lower face (P > 0.05). After 6 months of intervention, both groups had signifcant reductions in the total score of SRS and the score of each factor of SRS (P < 0.01); the control group had signifcant increases in the correct rates of facial expression recognition of all positions except the upright position (P < 0.05), while the experimental group had significant increases in the correct rates of facial expression recognition of all positions (P < 0.05). Compared with the control group after intervention, the experimental group had significantly lower total score of SRS and scores of all factors of SRS except social perception (P < 0.01) and signifcantly higher correct rates of facial expression recognition of all positions (P < 0.01). The experimental group had a signifcant change in the number of sandplay theme characteristics after intervention (P < 0.01). Conclusions Integrated sandplay therapy can improve social responsiveness and emotion recognition ability in preschool children with AS.
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