Study of Peer Relationships at School
Summary
The goal of this study is to compare the effects of two separate, manualized group interventions designed to improve social outcomes for young children with autism. The first type of group intervention utilizes a social skill curriculum delivered to a small group of children with autism at their school. This type of group will be referred to as the Skills group (SKILLS intervention). The other intervention delivers a social engagement curriculum at the children's school site and includes children with autism and typically developing peers, from the same school. This type of group will be referred to as the School Engagement Group (ENGAGE intervention).
Description
Once families have decided to join the study, and have completed the informed consent process using the "Social Skills Club - Parent Consent", and once we obtain letters of agreement from participating elementary schools, children with ASD will be randomly assigned to one of two intervention conditions, SKILLS or ENGAGE, led by two trained doctoral students. Since children will be randomized to either the SKILLS or the ENGAGE group, we are hoping to determine the active ingredients for successfully integrating children with autism. For both the SKILLS and the ENGAGE groups, all interventions and observations of children will take place in the target child's school. Thus, upon admission to the project, research personnel will attend the participant's classroom at school, and distribute consent forms titled "Peer Relationships at School - Classroom Parent Consent" to all children in the class. The consenting process should be no more than ten minutes. For those children that return informed consent from their parents, as well as offer assent on the "Children's Classroom Assent" to join to the project, social network measures (including brief demographic information), as well as friendship surveys (Friendships Qualities Scale; FQS), and an emotion measure (loneliness questionnaire) will be distributed at pre-intervention (baseline), post-intervention, and follow-up time points. These measures will take approximately 30-40 minutes per each time point. Graduate students will administer the measures and will make every effort to do so at a convenient time for the teacher and for the classroom to avoid utilizing instructional time. In addition, the efficacy of the treatment interventions will be assessed with ongoing direct behavioral observations at entry, twice during treatment, at exit, and at the 2-month follow-up.
Study Design
Allocation: Randomized, Control: Active Control, Endpoint Classification: Efficacy Study, Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment, Masking: Double Blind (Subject, Outcomes Assessor), Primary Purpose: Treatment
Conditions
Autism
Intervention
SKILLS vs ENGAGE
Location
University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles
California
United States
Status
Recruiting
Source
Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
Results (where available)
Links
- Source: http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT01011764
- Information obtained from ClinicalTrials.gov on July 15, 2010
Published on BioPortfolio: 2014-08-27T03:18:03-0400
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Medical and Biotech [MESH] Definitions
Asperger Syndrome
A childhood disorder predominately affecting boys and similar to autism (AUTISTIC DISORDER). It is characterized by severe, sustained, clinically significant impairment of social interaction, and restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior. In contrast to autism, there are no clinically significant delays in language or cognitive development. (From DSM-IV)
Rehabilitation, Vocational
Training of the mentally or physically disabled in work skills so they may be returned to regular employment utilizing these skills.
Test Taking Skills
Skills and strategies, unrelated to the traits a test is intended to measure, that may increase test takers' scores -- may include the effects of coaching or experience in taking tests. (ERIC Thesaurus)
Pharmacists
Those persons legally qualified by education and training to engage in the practice of pharmacy.
Specific Learning Disorder
Diagnosed when there are specific deficits in an individual’s ability to perceive or process information efficiently and accurately. This disorder first manifests during the years of formal schooling and is characterized by persistent and impairing difficulties with learning foundational academic skills in reading, writing, and/or math. The individual’s performance of the affected academic skills is well below average for age, or acceptable performance levels are achieved only with extraordinary effort. Specific learning disorder may occur in individuals identified as intellectually gifted and manifest only when the learning demands or assessment procedures (e.g., timed tests) pose barriers that cannot be overcome by their innate intelligence and compensatory strategies. For all individuals, specific learning disorder can produce lifelong impairments in activities dependent on the skills, including occupational performance. (from DSM-V)
