Autism, Autism Spectrum Disorder
Conditions
Keywords
social skills, executive functions, academic achievement, middle school
Brief summary
The goal of this study is to test how well two group interventions work for middle-school children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). One of the interventions focuses on teaching parents and adolescent skills to help improve their social functioning and the other focuses on teaching parents and adolescents skills to improve organization, planning, and study skills. Eligible participants will be randomly (like a coin flip) assigned to attend one of the two interventions.
Interventions
Intervention targeting academic executive functioning
BEHAVIORALBuilding Essential Social Skills for Teens (BESST)
Intervention targeting social skills
Sponsors
Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
10 Years to 15 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Diagnosis of autism * No intellectual disability * Problems with organization, materials management, and planning and prioritization * Problems with social skills * Fully included in middle school * Stable medication and behavioral treatment regime
Exclusion criteria
* Home schooled * Severe co-occurring psychopathology (e.g., aggression, suicidal) * Non English-speaking
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functioning, 2nd Edition | From enrollment to the end of treatment at 8 weeks. | The BRIEF-2 assesses real-world EF behaviors in the home and school environments. The T-scores range from 30:99 with higher scores being worse. |
| Homework Problems Checklist | From enrollment to end of treatment at 8 weeks. | The HPC assesses Homework Completion and Homework Management. Scores for Homework Completion range from 0 to 36 and for Homework Management from 0 to 21. Lower scores are better. |
| Academic Performance Rating Scale | From enrollment to end of treatment at 8 weeks. | The teacher-completed APRS assesses how well the adolescent is performing academically with 3 subscales (Academic Success, Academic Productivity, and Impulse Control). The two scores to be used in the current study include the Academic Success score which ranges from 7 to 35, while the Academic Productivity score ranges from 12 to 60. Higher scores are better. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Children's Organizational Skills Scale | From enrollment to the end of treatment at 8 weeks. | The COSS is a psychometrically strong rating scale assessing Organized Actions, Task Planning, and Memory \& Materials Management. The T scores for each subscale range from 20 to 83 and higher scores indicate worse functioning. |
| Weekly Calendar Planning Activity | From enrollment to the end of treatment at 8 weeks. | The WCPA is an objective measure of metacognition (i.e., planning, inhibition, problem solving, keeping track of rules, and monitoring passage of time) while performing a multiple-step activity (i.e., scheduling multiple appointments while adhering to various rules). The WCPA will report total appointments entered (0 to 10) and total correct appointments entered (0 to 10) with higher values being better. |
| Social Skills Assessment (TRIAD) | From enrollment to the end of treatment at 8 weeks. | The TRIAD assesses social skills (i.e., emotion understanding and perspective taking, initiating and ending interactions, responding to others, maintaining interactions and problem solving, and following social rules) rated on a 1 to 4 scale (1=not very well to 4=very well). Items rated 2 or less are considered areas of weakness. Items rated as 3 or above are considered areas of strength. |
Countries
United States
Contacts
CONTACTLeanne Tamm, Ph.D.
CONTACTAmie Duncan, Ph.D.
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORLeanne Tamm, Ph.D.
Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORAmie Duncan, Ph.D.
Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati
Outcome results
None listed