Teaching Social Skills to Preschool Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Development of the UCLA PEERS for Preschoolers Program

Background:  

With a growing body of literature indicating the importance of early intervention and parent training, children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and their parents are receiving interventions focused on behavior and language from a much earlier age. However, comparatively few interventions specifically address the development of social skills, and even fewer interventions incorporate a parent-training component or evaluate treatment efficacy using multiple raters and valid, reliable standardized assessment measures.

Objectives:  

The purpose of this study is to test the efficacy of a parent-assisted social skills intervention for high-functioning preschool children 3-6 years of age with ASD using core curricula developed through the UCLA Preschool Applied Learning of Social-Skills (PALS) Program (Sanderson & Laugeson, 2009), and evidence-based treatment delivery methods established through the UCLA Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS; Laugeson & Frankel, 2010).

Methods:  

Using core curricula developed through the UCLA PALS Program and structural elements of the UCLA PEERS Program, PEERS for Preschoolers will adapt two evidence-based social skills programs for preschool children with ASD to include an active parent-training component. Children ages 3 to 6 with ASD and their parents will participate in the PEERS for Preschoolers intervention. Treatment consists of 90-minute sessions, delivered once per week over the course of 16 weeks. Parents and preschoolers will attend separate concurrent sessions that will instruct them on key social skills. Children and parents will learn concrete rules and steps of social etiquette for social communication, turn-taking, sharing, peer entry, good sportsmanship, teamwork, helping behavior, and body boundaries. Child sessions will consist of puppet-facilitated scripted didactic lessons with role-playing exercises by group leaders and peer models, and structured and unstructured behavioral rehearsal of skills with peers. Parent sessions will consist of review of socialization homework assignments, didactic lessons, and reunification with children to practice in-vivo social coaching and behavior management with performance feedback. Treatment outcome measures to be completed by parents and teachers at pre- and post-intervention include the Social Skills Improvement System (SSIS; Gresham & Elliot, 2008), the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS; Constantino, 2005), the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale-Second Edition (Vineland-II; Sparrow et al., 2005), and behavioral observation data of targeted social skills during play.

Results:  

Preliminary results from PALS reveal significant improvements in parent-reported overall Social Responsiveness (p < .05) and Social Cognition (p < .01) on the SRS, and improvements in teacher-reported overall Social Skills (p < .01), Cooperation (p < .05), and Assertiveness (p < .01) on the SSRS, as well as parent-reported Social Communication (p < .01) on the SRS. Forthcoming findings for the current study are expected to reveal greater improvement in social competence and social responsiveness on the SRS, SSIS, and Vineland Socialization Subscale, with behavioral observation ratings suggesting improvement in targeted social skills.

Conclusions:  

It is anticipated that PEERS for Preschoolers will be efficacious in improving the social functioning of preschool-aged children with ASD. Findings from the current study will address a gap in the literature by incorporating parent education and training in social skills interventions for preschool-aged children with ASD.