Social and Academic Interventions for Autism Spectrum Disorder
Recruiting in Palo Alto (17 mi)
Overseen byLeanne Tamm, Ph.D.
Age: < 18
Sex: Any
Travel: May Be Covered
Time Reimbursement: Varies
Trial Phase: Academic
Recruiting
Sponsor: Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati
Disqualifiers: Home schooled, Severe psychopathology, others
No Placebo Group
Trial Summary
What is the purpose of this trial?The goal of this study is to test how well two group interventions work for middle-school children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). One of the interventions focuses on teaching parents and adolescent skills to help improve their social functioning and the other focuses on teaching parents and adolescents skills to improve organization, planning, and study skills. Eligible participants will be randomly (like a coin flip) assigned to attend one of the two interventions.
Will I have to stop taking my current medications?
The trial requires that participants have a stable medication and behavioral treatment regime, so you will not need to stop taking your current medications.
What data supports the effectiveness of the treatment Achieving Independence and Mastery in School (AIMS), Building Essential Social Skills for Teens (BESST) for autism spectrum disorder?
Research on the PEERS program, a similar social skills treatment for adolescents with autism, shows that it improves social skills, reduces anxiety, and enhances emotional and behavioral functioning. These improvements were observed in both clinical and community settings, suggesting that social skills interventions can be effective for adolescents with autism.
12345Is the social and academic intervention for autism spectrum disorder safe for humans?
The research articles provided do not contain specific safety data for the interventions mentioned, such as AIMS or BESST, but they do not report any safety concerns or adverse effects related to similar social skills training programs like PEERS.
26789How is the AIMS and BESST treatment for autism spectrum disorder different from other treatments?
The AIMS and BESST treatment is unique because it combines social and academic interventions specifically designed for teens with autism spectrum disorder, focusing on achieving independence in school and building essential social skills, which may not be the primary focus of other treatments.
234510Eligibility Criteria
This trial is for middle-schoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) who are fully included in regular classes, have no intellectual disabilities, and struggle with organization and social skills. They should be on a stable medication and behavioral treatment plan.Inclusion Criteria
* Problems with social skills
* Diagnosis of autism
* No intellectual disability
+3 more
Trial Timeline
Screening
Participants are screened for eligibility to participate in the trial
2-4 weeks
Treatment
Participants receive one of two group interventions focusing on either social skills or executive functioning skills for 8 weeks
8 weeks
Weekly sessions
Follow-up
Participants are monitored for safety and effectiveness after treatment
4 weeks
Participant Groups
The study tests two group interventions: AIMS focuses on improving social functioning, while BESST aims to enhance organizational and planning abilities. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of these programs.
2Treatment groups
Experimental Treatment
Active Control
Group I: Achieving Independence & Mastery in School (AIMS)Experimental Treatment1 Intervention
AIMS targets executive functioning skills using evidence-based strategies for youth with ASD to promote increased independence related to academics. Each session involves a review of a real world practice assignment and a didactic component illustrating key concepts followed by an in-session practice of the key concepts and strategies with coaching from a therapist. A behavior agreement is used to identify specific goals for adolescents to work on in collaboration with their caregivers and specific rewards earned for meeting their goals. Adolescents are assigned a real world practice assignment each session that consists of additional practice of strategies to further build and generalize skills between sessions.
Group II: Building Essential Social Skills for Teens (BESST)Active Control1 Intervention
BESST targets social skills using evidence-based strategies and includes sessions related to starting, joining, maintaining, and ending conversations and making, maintaining, and deepening friendships. Each skill will be introduced in a didactic lesson which includes modeling of the targeted skill by a therapist. Adolescents will role-play new skills during the session before receiving a homework assignment to practice the skill at home. Caregivers will receive training in social-communication difficulties in ASD and suggestions for supporting development of these skills. The sessions are specifically focused on generalizing newly learned skills to both home and school.
Find a Clinic Near You
Research Locations NearbySelect from list below to view details:
Cincinnati Children's HospitalCincinnati, OH
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Who Is Running the Clinical Trial?
Children's Hospital Medical Center, CincinnatiLead Sponsor
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)Collaborator
References
A Pilot Study Examining the Effectiveness of the PEERS Program on Social Skills and Anxiety in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder. [2020]The Program for the Evaluation of the Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS), a social skills intervention for high functioning adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), has been proven efficacious in randomized control trials. However, the effectiveness of the PEERS program in community settings has not been studied. The present small-scale pilot study examined the effectiveness of the PEERS program in a community setting. Five adolescents and their caregivers participated in the PEERS intervention. Results indicated that the adolescents showed significant improvement in their social engagement, social cognition, social communication, social motivation, and knowledge of PEERS skills and concepts from pre- to post-intervention. Furthermore, adolescents showed significant reductions in their internalizing and autistic symptoms from pre- to post-intervention. The findings from this small-scale pilot study support the effectiveness of the PEERS program in community-based settings.
Perceived and Observed Treatment Gains Following PEERS: A Preliminary Study with Latinx Adolescents with ASD. [2023]The Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS) social skills intervention has demonstrated effectiveness for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, studies have been limited by a lack of objective outcome measures and an underrepresentation of Latinx families. This pilot study extends the PEERS literature by utilizing an observational measure of conversational skills (Contextual Assessment of Social Skills; CASS) with a diverse sample of 13 adolescents with ASD (with parent groups conducted in English and Spanish simultaneously) and a control group of 11 neurotypical adolescents. Consistent with previous research, adolescents with ASD and their parents perceived improvements in social functioning following intervention, which were maintained four months later and corroborated by improvements in conversational skills.
Evidence-based social skills training for adolescents with autism spectrum disorders: the UCLA PEERS program. [2022]The present study examines the efficacy and durability of the PEERS Program, a parent-assisted social skills group intervention for high-functioning adolescents with ASD. Results indicate that teens receiving PEERS significantly improved their social skills knowledge, social responsiveness, and overall social skills in the areas of social communication, social cognition, social awareness, social motivation, assertion, cooperation, and responsibility, while decreasing autistic mannerisms and increasing the frequency of peer interactions. Independent teacher ratings revealed significant improvement in social skills and assertion from pre-test to follow-up assessment. Examination of durability of improvement revealed maintenance of gains in nearly all domains with additional treatment gains at a 14-week follow-up assessment.
Parents Perceive Improvements in Socio-emotional Functioning in Adolescents with ASD Following Social Skills Treatment. [2019]The current study examined the effectiveness of a social skills treatment (PEERS) for improving socio-emotional competencies in a sample of high-functioning adolescents with ASD. Neuropsychological and self- and parent-report measures assessing social, emotional, and behavioral functioning were administered before and after treatment. Following social skills treatment, adolescents with ASD exhibited decreased aggression, anxiety, and withdrawal, as well as improvements in emotional responsiveness, adaptability, leadership, and participation in activities of daily living, though no change was found in affect recognition abilities. These findings suggest that PEERS social skills treatment improves particular aspects of emotional, behavioral, and social functioning that may be necessary for developing and maintaining quality peer relationships and remediating social isolation in adolescents with ASD.
A replication and extension of the PEERS intervention: examining effects on social skills and social anxiety in adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. [2021]This study aimed to evaluate the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS: Laugeson et al. in J Autism Dev Disord 39(4):596-606, 2009). PEERS focuses on improving friendship quality and social skills among adolescents with higher-functioning ASD. 58 participants aged 11-16 years-old were randomly assigned to either an immediate treatment or waitlist comparison group. Results revealed, in comparison to the waitlist group, that the experimental treatment group significantly improved their knowledge of PEERS concepts and friendship skills, increased in their amount of get-togethers, and decreased in their levels of social anxiety, core autistic symptoms, and problem behaviors from pre-to post-PEERS. This study provides the first independent replication and extension of the empirically-supported PEERS social skills intervention for adolescents with ASD.
The Learning, Social and Emotion Adaptation Questionnaire-Short Form: A Measure of Adaptive Behavior for Primary School Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder. [2021]Students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) studying in mainstream classrooms have diverse adjustment difficulties in learning, social interaction, and emotion regulation. It is crucial to identify the areas these students find most challenging so that teachers can provide training and support accordingly. We therefore developed, examined, and provided norms for the Learning, Social and Emotion Adaptation Questionnaire-Short Form (LSEAQ-S), a teacher report instrument measuring 53 essential adaptive behaviors for mainstream primary school students in Hong Kong. Teachers completed the LSEAQ-S for three samples of 2,298, 2,690, and 3,305 students with ASD from 204 schools and a sample of 1,869 students without ASD from 112 schools. Our study showed that an 11-factor structure best describes the LSEAQ-S, which has high internal consistency and good convergent validity examined with the Social Responsiveness Scale-Second Edition (SRS-2). Normative data of the LSEAQ-S stratified by gender and grade (grades 1 to 3; grades 4 to 6) are presented. Gender and grade differences were found, with girls with ASD lagging behind their same-gender peers in related skills more than boys with ASD did, across both grade levels and especially in senior grades. The LSEAQ-S, together with its normative data, can reveal students' difficulties and needs, inform intervention priorities, and help monitor training progress. LAY SUMMARY: This study introduces the Learning, Social and Emotion Adaptation Questionnaire-Short Form (LSEAQ-S), a teacher report instrument developed in Hong Kong measuring school adaptation of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in mainstream primary schools. The measure helps education personnel identify behaviors in which a student falls behind his/her peers and facilitate training and support targeting those behaviors. Autism Res 2021, 14: 959-972. © 2020 The Authors. Autism Research published by International Society for Autism Research and Wiley Periodicals LLC.
Moderators of School Intervention Outcomes for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. [2021]A prior cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) compared outcomes for a comprehensive school intervention (schoolMAX) to typical educational programming (services-as-usual [SAU]) for 103 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) without intellectual disability. The schoolMAX intervention was superior to SAU in improving social-cognitive understanding (emotion-recognition), social/social-communication skills, and ASD-related impairment (symptoms). In the current study, a range of demographic, clinical, and school variables were tested as potential moderators of treatment outcomes from the prior RCT. Moderation effects were not evident in demographics, child IQ, language, or ASD diagnostic symptoms, or school SES. Baseline externalizing symptoms moderated the outcome of social-cognitive understanding and adaptive skills moderated the outcome of ASD-related symptoms (no other comorbid symptoms or adaptive skills ratings moderated outcomes on the three measures). Overall, findings suggest that the main effects of treatment were, with two exceptions, unaffected by third variables.
Effects of Social Skills Training for Adolescents on the Autism Spectrum: a Randomized Controlled Trial of the Polish Adaptation of the PEERS® Intervention via Hybrid and In-Person Delivery. [2023]The study examined the efficacy of the Polish adaptation of the PEERS® curriculum for adolescents on the autism spectrum. Twenty-nine adolescents (aged 11-16) were randomized into a Treatment and a Waitlist Control Group. Due to COVID-19-related restrictions, the Treatment Group received part of the intervention online (in hybrid mode). Results showed large effects of PEERS® increasing the teens' social skills, knowledge about social skills, and the number of get-togethers with peers. Most of the effects were maintained over a six-month follow-up period. There was no impact of the delivery mode on the treatment effects. The study demonstrates the feasibility and efficacy of the Polish adaptation of PEERS® and encourages future research on the online/hybrid delivery of Social Skills Training.
The ABC's of teaching social skills to adolescents with autism spectrum disorder in the classroom: the UCLA PEERS (®) Program. [2021]Social skills training is a common treatment method for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), yet very few evidence-based interventions exist to improve social skills for high-functioning adolescents on the spectrum, and even fewer studies have examined the effectiveness of teaching social skills in the classroom. This study examines change in social functioning for adolescents with high-functioning ASD following the implementation of a school-based, teacher-facilitated social skills intervention known as Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS (®) ). Seventy-three middle school students with ASD along with their parents and teachers participated in the study. Participants were assigned to the PEERS (®) treatment condition or an alternative social skills curriculum. Instruction was provided daily by classroom teachers and teacher aides for 14-weeks. Results reveal that in comparison to an active treatment control group, participants in the PEERS (®) treatment group significantly improved in social functioning in the areas of teacher-reported social responsiveness, social communication, social motivation, social awareness, and decreased autistic mannerisms, with a trend toward improved social cognition on the Social Responsiveness Scale. Adolescent self-reports indicate significant improvement in social skills knowledge and frequency of hosted and invited get-togethers with friends, and parent-reports suggest a decrease in teen social anxiety on the Social Anxiety Scale at a trend level. This research represents one of the few teacher-facilitated treatment intervention studies demonstrating effectiveness in improving the social skills of adolescents with ASD in the classroom: arguably the most natural social setting of all.
Randomized comparative trial of a social cognitive skills group for children with autism spectrum disorder. [2018]This study evaluated the efficacy of a targeted social skills training group in school-aged children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The intervention, Seaver-NETT (Nonverbal communication, Emotion recognition, and Theory of mind Training), is a 12-session cognitive-behavioral intervention (CBI) for verbal, school-aged children targeting ASD-specific social behavioral impairments.