18894
A Randomized Controlled Study into the Efficacy of Social Skills Training in Autism (ESTIA) for Preadolescent Children
Social skills training (SST) is a common intervention for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) to improve their social and communication skills. Such training is clinically appreciated as relevant, and is often applied. However, the evidence for the effectiveness of SST for children with ASD is inconclusive, due to limitations in design, lack of adequate measures of social skills and deficits associated with ASD, limited sample size and lack of information from multiple informants. Moreover, long term outcome and generalization of learned skills have been little evaluated. Additionally, there is no research on the influence of involvement of parents and teachers on the effectiveness of SST and on the generalization of learned social skills.
Objectives:
The main objective of the ESTIA study (Efficacy of Social skills Training In Autism; Dekker et al., 2014) is to investigate the efficacy of an SST compared to care-as-usual in 10-12 year old children with ASD. The second aim is to investigate the efficacy of an enhanced SST (involving parents and teachers) as compared to non-enhanced SST, specifically on the generalization of the learned skills. Additionally, we aim to investigate factors that possibly influence the effectiveness of the SST, examining whether and which specific groups of children improve more or less with SST.
Methods:
In a randomized controlled trail (RCT) with three conditions, 128 participants with ASD at the end of primary school (10-12 years of age) were randomized to SST (n=52), SST-with Parent & Teacher Involvement (SST-PTI, n=51), or care-as-usual (n=25). The SST consisted of 18 group sessions of 1.5 hours for the children (Van Warners et al., 2010a). In the SST-PTI condition, parents additionally participated in 8 parent sessions and parents and teachers were actively involved in homework assignments (Van Warners, 2010b). Assessment took place before and immediately after the intervention period and at 6 months follow-up. The effectiveness will be investigated with hierarchical linear modeling. All data will be analyzed using the intent-to-treat principle.
Results:
Data collection has finished and we will perform the analyses late 2014-early 2015. The current presentation will focus on the socialization domain of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-Survey Version and parent report about training-specific social skills and more general social skills pertaining to home and community settings.
Conclusions:
The effectiveness of SST and SST-PTI will be discussed in relation to the existing literature. Specific attention will be given to long term outcome.
References:
Dekker, V., Nauta, M.H., Mulder, E.J., Timmerman, M.E., de Bildt, A.: BMC Psychiatry 2014, 14:189.
Van Warners, S., Vet, L., Van der Veen-Mulders, L., & Van den Hoofdakker, B.J. (2010a). SSTG-C-ASD. Groningen: Accare University Center, internal publication.
Van Warners, S., & Vet, L. (2010b). SSTG-PT-ASD. Groningen: Accare University Center, internal publication.