Title:
The Effectiveness of a Social Skills
Intervention Program for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders
In the fall of 2003,
a new program called Systematic Treatment of Autism and Related
Disorders (STAR) was developed. The goal of this intervention program
is to provide comprehensive psychosocial, behavioral, and biomedical
interventions to children with autism spectrum disorders and their
families using evidence-based practices. A secondary goal of our
program is to establish its effectiveness. As such, outcome measurements
were generated, and the aim of this study is to describe the results
of one of our social skills treatment program. All children with
autism share impairments in social development. Despite being a
core feature, social impairments are amenable to treatments. Evidence
based practice identifies three primary intervention techniques,
direct instruction, and teacher and peer mediated strategies. Most
research, however, has occurred in school settings as part of a
research protocol. No studies have been performed in real-world
clinical settings. The effectiveness of this social skills program
for children with autism spectrum disorders also includes measures
of social validity (parental perception of outcomes). Six boys between
the ages of 9 and 12 years participated in a 12-week social skills
program. Each session lasted 75 minutes. Two outcomes were established
based on parental concerns: conversational skills and social problem
solving skills. Pre and post measures were developed. Improvements
in conversational skills and problem solving skills were observed
following group training. Parents also reported improvement of these
skills in natural settings. Problems with collecting data as part
of a clinical versus research project were evident. Two of the boys
did not complete the entire group. Obstacles for effectiveness research
are discussed as well as strengths and weaknesses of our study.
