Clinical Trial of a Comprehensive Treatment for High-Functioning Children with ASD
Abstract
This RCT tested the efficacy of an outpatient psychosocial treatment for children with ASD without intellectual disability (ID).Eighty-eight children (ages 7-12 yrs) were randomly assigned to the treatment or control condition. The 18-week cognitive behavioral treatment (two 90-min sessions per week) included small-group instruction and therapeutic activities targeting social/social-communication skills, face-emotion recognition, nonliteral language skills, and interest expansion. A behavioral system was used to increase skills development and reduce ASD symptoms. Efficacy was assessed immediately following the18-week treatment (posttest) and 4-6 weeks post-treatment. Measures included parent ratings of the childrens social/social communication skills, ASD symptoms, broad social skills, and behavior symptoms, child tests of social-cognitive skills (emotion recognition and nonliteral language), and behavioral observations. Results revealed significant effects favoring the treatment group at posttest on the primary measures of ASD symptoms and social/social-communication skills, and secondary measures of nonliteral language skills, broad social skills, and behavior symptoms (measures of emotion-recognition skills and social behaviors during structured game sessions were non-significant). The significant treatment effects found at posttest were all maintained at follow-up.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1116532
Entities
People
- Christopher Lopata
Organizations
- Canisius University