Abstract: Objective To observe the effect of acupuncture combined with special education in the treatment of autism spectrum disorder(ASD) in children and its effect on their social life ability.Methods A total of 80 children aged 3 to 6 years with autism spectrum disorder admitted to the Pediatric Encephalopathy Diagnosis and Treatment Rehabilitation Center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Chinese Medicine from February 2021 to December 2021 were selected and randomly divided into 2 groups(control group and observation group), with 40 cases in each group, and the score changes of the autism behavior checklist(ABC), childhood autism rating scale(CARS) and normal development of social skills from infant to junior high school children(S-M) and clinical efficacy before and after treatment were compared between the two groups.Results After treatment, the response rate of 85.0%(34/40) in the observation group was significantly better than that in the control group(65.0%,26/40), with a statistically significant difference(P<0.05).The differences in the improvement of CARS scores, language, communication, self-care ability and social life ability between the two groups are of statistical significance. Acupuncture combined with special education is a better therapy than pure special education(P<0.05).Conclusion Acupuncture combined with special education can effectively relieve the core symptoms of autistic children, especially the language and social ability, improve the ability of social life, relieve family pressure, and enable them to integrate into society as soon as possible, which is conducive to the prognosis of autistic children.

Key words:

Autism, Acupuncture, Special education, Clinical efficacy, Social ability, Children