Special movies may be a good way to teach social skills to children with autism.

Children with autism tend to play less than typical children and are less social than typical children. This study tested whether children with autism were better able to learn social skills from movies or from free play. The children met in social therapy groups for five weeks, three times per week, for one hour at a time. Children in both the movie group and the free play group were able to learn social skills, although the children in the movie group seemed to learn better. The student to therapist ratio in both groups was two to one and the authors believe that ratio was important for the success of both treatment programs.