The play world of children with autism is based on a fixed formula of their behaviour. They do not participate willingly in games taken up spontaneously and any attempts to initiate them or join games voluntarily are not always successful. They wish to participate in social contacts like every child, they have motivation towards it but they lack the appropriate knowledge and skills in how to get involved in them normally (Pisula, 2005, p. 103; see Njardvik, Matson & Cherry, 1999, pp. 287-295). The effective method that supports problem solving and enables children to learn social skills, including play skills, is the usage of Comic Strip Conversations, which arranges in a systematic way “what people say and do, and emphasize what people may be thinking” (Gray, 1994, p. 1).

Nowadays, there is a growing need for reflection on the role of drama therapy workshops because of an immense interest in art therapy in general in social or psycho-pedagogical work aimed to support the development of social abilities, in particular communications skills. Therapeutic aspects of art are connected with its impact on psyche, and thus the intensification of specific cognitive, emotional and motivational processes. This paper emphasises personal growth of the participant in relation with a group. In workshop activities, especially during improvisation, the ability to undertake and strengthen positive relations is developing. Reorganization and integration of participants’ attitudes, resulting in better interpersonal relationships, are shown to occur during drama therapy workshops. New attitudes or acquired skills may become for many of them an encouragement to further explorations, an indication of a framework for increased engagement in social interactions.

In line with global educational directives, this article presents the results of a study exploring effective methods to support adolescents in coping with challenging situations. The aim of the study was to determine the role of Aggression Replacement Training (ART) in developing social skills among young adolescents. In the conducted pedagogical experiment, students in the experimental group participated in ART sessions. The level of social skills was measured using the Observational Social Skills Questionnaires (OSSQ) completed by the participants’ educators. The statistically significant results indicate that the Aggression Replacement Training method is an effective means of helping young people cope with difficult situations in today’s rapidly changing social and technological landscape.