A Preliminary Randomized Controlled Trial of Two Social Skills Interventions for Youth With High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders

Abstract

This study examined the effects of two social skills interventions, Sociodramatic Affective Relational Intervention (SDARI) and Skillstreaming, to compare their treatment mechanisms, social performance-and knowledge-training. A total of 13 youth with autism spectrum disorders were randomly assigned to 4 weeks of 1-day/week SDARI or Skillstreaming. Groups were matched on parent and child demographics, and intervention staff training. Participants were assessed on social behavior during treatment sessions, peer sociometrics, staff-reported social skills, and parent-reported social skill generalization. Results indicated that both groups increased in reciprocated friendship nominations and staff-reported social skills. Relative to Skillstreaming participants, SDARI participants liked and interacted more with each other after a single session. However, Skillstreaming participants increased in peer liking and interaction over the course of the intervention; SDARI participants decreased slightly. Parents reported no change in social functioning at home. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Social Skill Group Interventions for Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders: a Systematic Review

“…Most of the articles identified in this review evaluated program effectiveness using a pre-post design. However, researchers appear to be transitioning from these preliminary feasibility studies to more rigorously controlled trials, with several RCTs having been conducted and published in recent years (e.g., Laugeson et al 2012;Lerner & Mikami 2012;White et al 2013). With regard to treatment setting, most of the studies examined in this review took place in clinic settings, but a small number of studies suggest that social skills groups may be effective in school and community settings (e.g., Barnhill et al 2002;Kempe & Tissot 2012).…”

“…One study examining two different social skills group interventions found statistically significant results (based on unblinded interventionist ratings on the SSRSTeacher Survey) after 90 min of treatment every week for 4 weeks (Lerner & Mikami 2012). However, the researchers acknowledged the inherent limitations of such unblended measures and noted that the skill growth observed by the treatment providers was not reported by parents on the SSRS-Parent Survey, thus concluding that interventions of longer duration were likely necessary to produce generalized gains.…”

“…Only one study compared two different delivery formats: one intended to address social knowledge deficits (Skillstreaming) and the other intended to address social performance deficits (Sociodramatic Affective Relational Intervention; Lerner & Mikami 2012). The authors found that both interventions resulted in improvements in clinician-rated socials skills and reciprocated friendship nominations, but in different ways.…”

A Systematic Review of Social Communication and Interaction Interventions for Patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…The remaining 3 trials were assessed as having a high risk of bias factors, such as a small sample size and baseline differences between the intervention and control groups. One of these trials evaluated a training program for theory of mind (55), one compared two forms of skills training programs (56), and one studied the effect of a multimodal intervention for social skills and anxiety (57).…”

The Use of Theatre to Develop Social and Communication Behaviors for Students with Autism

“…The inability to understand the Perspective of Others results in social and communication problems and is often considered a primary deficit in ASD. Therefore, the improvement of social skills is often a focus of instruction for individuals with ASD [2][3][4][5][6][7][8].…”