Study of Peer Relationships at School
Condition: Autism
MeSH terms: Autistic Disorder
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The goal of this study is to compare the effects of two separate, manualized group
      interventions designed to improve social outcomes for young children with autism. The first
      type of group intervention utilizes a social skill curriculum delivered to a small group of
      children with autism at their school. This type of group will be referred to as the Skills
      group (SKILLS intervention). The other intervention delivers a social engagement curriculum
      at the children's school site and includes children with autism and typically developing
      peers, from the same school. This type of group will be referred to as the School Engagement
      Group (ENGAGE intervention).
    

Detailed description: 
      Once families have decided to join the study, and have completed the informed consent process
      using the "Social Skills Club - Parent Consent", and once we obtain letters of agreement from
      participating elementary schools, children with ASD will be randomly assigned to one of two
      intervention conditions, SKILLS or ENGAGE, led by two trained doctoral students. Since
      children will be randomized to either the SKILLS or the ENGAGE group, we are hoping to
      determine the active ingredients for successfully integrating children with autism. For both
      the SKILLS and the ENGAGE groups, all interventions and observations of children will take
      place in the target child's school. Thus, upon admission to the project, research personnel
      will attend the participant's classroom at school, and distribute consent forms titled "Peer
      Relationships at School - Classroom Parent Consent" to all children in the class. The
      consenting process should be no more than ten minutes. For those children that return
      informed consent from their parents, as well as offer assent on the "Children's Classroom
      Assent" to join to the project, social network measures (including brief demographic
      information), as well as friendship surveys (Friendships Qualities Scale; FQS), and an
      emotion measure (loneliness questionnaire) will be distributed at pre-intervention
      (baseline), post-intervention, and follow-up time points. These measures will take
      approximately 30-40 minutes per each time point. Graduate students will administer the
      measures and will make every effort to do so at a convenient time for the teacher and for the
      classroom to avoid utilizing instructional time. In addition, the efficacy of the treatment
      interventions will be assessed with ongoing direct behavioral observations at entry, twice
      during treatment, at exit, and at the 2-month follow-up.
    

Intervention name(s): SKILLS vs ENGAGE
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): The investigators plan to contrast 2 different models for social skills groups. Each model involves 16 45-minute bi-weekly sessions, twice a week with a small group of children with ASD. Details of the 2 intervention models are described below.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Double (Participant, Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: social networks; friendships; autism spectrum disorder