Teaching Academic Success Skills to Students With Autism Spectrum Disorders in Clinical Setting

Teaching Academic Success Skills to Middle School Students With Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) With Executive Functioning Deficits - in Clinical Setting

Status

Completed

Phases

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT03606343

Acronym

TASK-R21

Enrollment

Registered

2018-07-30

Start date

2017-09-01

Completion date

2020-08-31

Last updated

2020-12-17

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Brief summary

The goal of the study is to develop an academic EF intervention, Teaching Academic Skills to Kids (TASK), for high functioning (i.e., IQ score ≥80) middle-school youth with ASD and EF deficits. Aim 1: Use focus group methodology and advice from expert consultants to develop the TASK intervention targeting academic EF skills for middle school youth with ASD that is tailored to the unique needs of these individuals (e.g., content specific to ASD EF deficits, incorporate evidence-based teaching principles and methods for ASD). Aim 2: Examine the feasibility and acceptability of TASK in 3 open trials to assess initial feasibility and efficacy.

Detailed description

The goal of the study is to develop an academic EF intervention, Teaching Academic Skills to Kids (TASK), for high functioning (i.e., IQ score ≥80) middle-school youth with ASD and EF deficits. Aim 1: Develop the TASK intervention targeting academic EF skills for middle school youth with ASD that is tailored to the unique needs of these individuals (e.g., content specific to ASD EF deficits, incorporate evidence-based teaching principles and methods for ASD). A methodologically rigorous, well-integrated iterative and collaborative design process with input from multiple stakeholders, including school mental health professionals, teachers, parents, and youth with ASD, will be utilized. Aim 2: Examine the feasibility and acceptability of TASK in 3 open trials including the feasibility of: 1) implementing the measurement protocol, 2) operationalizing intervention delivery, 3) assessing both trained and untrained areas of functioning, 4) assessing whether improvements in academic EF skills (proposed mechanism of treatment) are related to functional educational outcomes (e.g., homework behaviors, grades), and 5) exploring the data for potential treatment moderators (e.g., gender, severity). It is hypothesized that TASK will be feasible, acceptable (attendance, satisfaction), and will result in improved academic EF skills associated with reduced academic impairment and homework problems.

Interventions

BEHAVIORALTeaching Academic Skills to Kids

Group treatment

Study design

Allocation

Intervention model

SINGLE_GROUP

Primary purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Intervention model description

Open trial

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

11 Years to 14 Years

Healthy volunteers

Inclusion criteria

* Diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder * IQ \>80 * 7th grade at time of intervention * mainstreamed classroom * executive functioning problems identified on parent or teacher BRIEF-2

Exclusion criteria

* danger to self or others

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Children's Organizational Skills Scale	baseline, 3 months	The Children's Organizational Skills Scale is a rating scale of organization and executive functioning. A T-score is reported. A T-score of 50 indicates the population mean with a standard deviation of 10. Range of possible T-scores is 40 to 90. Higher T-scores indicate poorer organization/executive functioning. We present baseline (before intervention) and 3 month outcome (post intervention) T-scores as rated by the parent.
Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function - Second Edition	baseline, 3 months	The Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function - Second Edition is a parent rating scale of executive functioning. A T-score is reported. A T-score of 50 indicates the population mean with a standard deviation of 10. Range of possible T-scores is 40 to 90. Higher T-scores indicate poorer executive functioning. We present baseline (before intervention) and 3 month outcome (post intervention) T-scores.
Homework Problem Checklist	baseline, 3 months	The Homework Problem Checklist is a rating scale of homework behavior completed by the parent. There are two subscales generated: Homework Completion Behaviors & Homework Management Behaviors. Scale is rated on a 0 = never to 3 = very often scale and a sum of scores is computed for each subscale. Range of scores for Homework Completion Behaviors is 0 to 36. Range of scores for Homework Management Behaviors is 0 to 21. We present baseline (before intervention) and 3 month outcome (post intervention) scores for each subscale. Higher scores indicate worse outcome.

Secondary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Woodcock Johnson Tests of Achievement - Third Edition Basic Writing Subtest	baseline, 3 months	The Woodcock Johnson is an academic performance measure administered to the child. A standard score of 100 indicates the population mean with a standard deviation of 15 (range of 40 to 170). Lower standard scores are worse. We present baseline (before intervention) and 3 month outcome (post intervention) for the Basic Writing subtest.
Parenting Relationship Questionnaire - Communication Subscale	baseline, 3 months	The Parenting Relationship Questionnaire is completed by parents to describe their parenting relationship with the teen. A T-score is reported for the Communication subscale. A T-score of 50 indicates the population mean with a standard deviation of 10. Range of possible T-scores is 40 to 90. Lower T-scores indicate poorer communication. We present baseline (before intervention) and 3 month outcome (post intervention) T-scores.
Classroom Performance Survey	baseline, 3 months	The Classroom Performance Survey is a teacher rating scale of classroom behavior. The scale is rated 1 = always to 5 = never. An academic competence mean score is computed (range 1 to 5) with higher scores indicating a worse outcome. We present baseline (before intervention) and 3 month outcome (post intervention) total mean score.
Academic Performance Rating System	baseline, 3 months	The Academic Performance Rating System is a teacher rating scale of academic performance. Items are rated 1 = Never to 5 = Very often and the items are summed to generate a Total Score (range 19 to 95) with higher scores worse indicating a worse outcome. We present the Total score at baseline (before intervention) and 3 month outcome (post intervention).

Countries

United States

Participant flow

Recruitment details

Youth with ASD without ID attending middle school and their parents were recruited in the 2018-2019 academic school year via letters, flyers, and emails targeted at individuals who had received services at a hospital outpatient clinic specializing in assessment and treatment of autism.

Participants by arm

Arm	Count
Open Trial Group based treatment targeting academic executive functioning skills such as organization, planning, and study skills. Likely to be 7 90-minute sessions attended weekly by parents and teens Teaching Academic Skills to Kids: Group treatment	21
Total	21

Baseline characteristics

Characteristic	Open Trial
Age, Continuous	12.2 years STANDARD_DEVIATION 1
Ethnicity (NIH/OMB) Hispanic or Latino	1 Participants
Ethnicity (NIH/OMB) Not Hispanic or Latino	20 Participants
Ethnicity (NIH/OMB) Unknown or Not Reported	0 Participants
Kauffman Brief Intelligence Test - Second Edition	109.7 scores on a scale STANDARD_DEVIATION 13.8
Race (NIH/OMB) American Indian or Alaska Native	1 Participants
Race (NIH/OMB) Asian	0 Participants
Race (NIH/OMB) Black or African American	0 Participants
Race (NIH/OMB) More than one race	0 Participants
Race (NIH/OMB) Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander	0 Participants
Race (NIH/OMB) Unknown or Not Reported	0 Participants
Race (NIH/OMB) White	20 Participants
Region of Enrollment United States	21 participants
Sex: Female, Male Female	5 Participants
Sex: Female, Male Male	16 Participants

Adverse events

Event type	EG000 affected / at risk
deaths Total, all-cause mortality	0 / 21
other Total, other adverse events	0 / 21
serious Total, serious adverse events	0 / 21

Outcome results

Primary

Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function - Second Edition

The Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function - Second Edition is a parent rating scale of executive functioning. A T-score is reported. A T-score of 50 indicates the population mean with a standard deviation of 10. Range of possible T-scores is 40 to 90. Higher T-scores indicate poorer executive functioning. We present baseline (before intervention) and 3 month outcome (post intervention) T-scores.