Parent Training to Enhance Social Success for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder
Condition: Autism Spectrum Disorder
MeSH terms: Autistic Disorder; Autism Spectrum Disorder; Child Development Disorders, Pervasive
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit characteristic deficits in social
      initiation and there are no empirically validated treatments specifically for this core
      deficit. While parent training is known to be a critical intervention component, few social
      skills programs involve parents. This study will capitalize on an existing social skills
      group already established at the community agency Abilities United, with the goal of
      enhancing the program's effectiveness by adding a parent component. Specifically, the
      proposed study will investigate whether a novel parent mediated social skills program (Social
      SUCCESS), which provides parent training in conjunction with a social skills group
      intervention, will result in more frequent initiations during play with typically developing
      peers. Participants will include 50 children with ASD age 4:0 to 6:11 years. Children will be
      randomly assigned to either Social SUCCESS (N=25) or waiting list (N=25). Treatment will be
      provided for 8 weeks during a weekly 120-minute social skills group at Abilities United. The
      study will evaluate the effects of Social SUCCESS on areas of core social deficit including
      frequency of peer initiations using parent ratings, observational measures, standardized
      questionnaires, and a social eye tracking task. Outcomes will be compared to a waiting list
      control group. Findings will be disseminated through presentations and publications to aid
      clinicians in providing more effective social skills treatment for children with ASD and to
      enhance the scientific knowledge-base related to evidence-based social skills treatments.
      This research designed with the goal of stimulating additional scientific inquiry in the area
      of treatment for core social deficits in ASD and will provide a strong foundation for larger
      scale grants to study motivation-based interventions to improve social functioning.
    


Intervention name(s): Social SUCCESS; Wait List
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Social SUCCESS will run for 12 weeks, with up to 5 children with ASD per group. Parents will attend didactic group sessions focused on motivating children with ASD to initiate to peers (90 min weekly) and will attend a portion of the existing 90 min social group to practice applying these strategies with their children and peer volunteers. Parent training will utilize the manual "Improving Socialization in Individuals with Autism".; Participants assigned to the Wait List will continue stable community treatments for 12 weeks and will be provided an intervention similar to Social SUCCESS upon completion of all post measures.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single (Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: parent training; social skills