An Investigation on the Effectiveness of “Dolphin Encounter for Special Children” (DESC) Program for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) share the common triad of impairments in social interaction, communication, and imagination or display of stereotyped behaviors. In this study, five subjects diagnosed with ASD, aged between 6 and 13 years-old, participated in the “Dolphin Encounter for Special Children” (DESC) Program offered by the Underwater World, Singapore, and was conducted at the Dolphin Lagoon in Sentosa, an island south of the mainland Singapore, for a period of 6 months. A pre- and post-treatment experimental design as well as qualitative case records was used to find out how the program had benefited the subjects and to what extent it had helped reduce their autistic traits/symptoms.