Autism Spectrum Disorder Mental and Behavioural Disorders Childhood autism
Conditions
Interventions
Participants in schools will be randomised to the intervention group will use Social Stories for between three and six months. The Social Stories will be delivered in a way that is informed by the pre
Sponsors
NHS North Yorkshire and York (UK)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: In the feasibility RCT stage of the study, 1. Children will only be recruited between the ages of 4-15 years 2. Have a definite diagnosis of an ASD and have behavioural problems in school (as reported by parents and teachers) 3. We will prescreen children for challenging behaviour, using clinical interviews and measures informed by the systematic review, which may include the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and the Developmental Behaviour Checklist We have deliberately kept the age range broad in order to explore the acceptability of this intervention across age ranges and different settings (e.g. primary and secondary schools) and inform a fully powered trial.
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: This is a pragmatic trial which recognises the frequency and complexity of co-morbidities in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). We will therefore not exclude on the basis of comorbidity since the intervention would eventually be offered to this group if adopted more widely in the NHS. This will ensure that the research remains relevant to everyday clinical practice. This means for example that we will include children and young people with a learning disability, epilepsy, attentional problems, neurological disorders or syndromes (e.g. CHARGE syndrome, Fragile X syndrome etc). We will exclude: 1. Any child from the study if they have used a Social Story within the last six months 2. Children and young people if they are likely to be moving school during the trial period, or if they develop behaviour or illness that warrants admission to a psychiatric unit (e.g. psychosis, serious self harm). These exclusion criteria were informed by discussions with parents who had previously used Social Stories in a focus group prior to submitting the full application. Children will only be randomised into the trial if they exhibit challenging behaviours using the validated cut offs from the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire or the Developmental Behaviour Checklist.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| At this point we have not chosen a main outcome measure as it is one of the purposes of the feasibility study to explore which outcome measures are most likely to be useful, which may include: 1. Developmental Behaviour Checklist (DBC; which includes ASD subscales and a disruptive subscale (parent and teacher) 2. Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ;which includes conduct, hyperactivity and prosocial subscales (parent, child, teacher) 3. Likert Scales for target behaviours designed and agreed by the focus groups/ expert panel (parent, child, teacher, and clinician). In this way we will develop a goal based outcomes scale and test its usefulness against the other instruments as part of our feasibility study 4. Generalisability will be assessed using questionnaires designed for each individual child that ask about the frequency of challenging behaviours for both the Social Story target behaviour and for other associated or related behaviours (e.g. if more positive behaviours in the class result in reduced destruction in the class are there also reductions seen in other settings, such as the dining hall, home etc). These will be parent and teacher based questionnaires used before and after the intervention. 5. General Health Questionnaire (parents) | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| No secondary outcome measures | — |
Countries
United Kingdom
Outcome results
None listed