Exploring Barriers to the Generalization of Social Skills Interventions for Children Diagnosed with ASD: A Qualitative Analysis of ‘Youth Engagement Through Intervention’

Many children who are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have difficulty with social skills and maintaining friendships. In turn, many social skills interventions have been developed to aid in the treatment of children diagnosed with ASD. Children with ASD, however, have difficulty generalizing the skills learned in social skills interventions to more natural settings like the home and school. This study, therefore, explored the barriers to the generalization of a social skills intervention, Youth Engagement Through Intervention (YETI) for children with ASD. Barriers to the generalization of YETI were explored through the qualitative examination of parents’ acceptability of the evidence-based strategies used in YETI and how these strategies played a role in generalization of social skills in the home setting. The qualitative analysis analyzed data collected from parent rating scales and semi-structured interviews designed specifically for YETI

Investigating the Effectiveness of Parent-Implemented Interventions in Improving the Social Skills of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

There has been an increase in the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in recent years. As a result, many families who have a child diagnosed with ASD seek out effective treatment in improving the social skills of their child. Literature suggests varied results when considering the treatment outcomes of different social skills interventions. However, the use of evidence-based practices (EBP), parent involvement in the treatment, and individualized treatment goals is considered best practice when treating ASD. This study combined the use of three EBPs: video modeling, social narratives and parent implemented intervention (PII), in attempts to effectively improve the social skills of children with ASD. A multimethod approach was used to study the effectiveness of this treatment. Specifically, an ABAB single subjects design with a 1-month follow-up was used to improve the social skills (social communication and social-emotional skills) of two children with ASD. Moreover, parent interviews, logs, rating scales and checklists were used to study the maintenance of treatment effects, the social validity and the treatment fidelity of the treatments. Results indicated that the treatment approach was not effective in improving social communication of one participant, but was moderately effective in decreasing the frequency of disruptive behaviors for one of the participants. Treatment fidelity was determined to be an important factor when considering the use of parent driven treatments within the home setting. Moreover, strong social validity was determined despite the parent having difficulty implementing the treatment consistently. Further discussion of the results, recommendations for future research and limitations of the study are also presented

Effectiveness and Parent Acceptability of \u27Youth Engagement Through Intervention\u27 Social Skills Group for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

This poster was presented at the Annual National Association of School Psychologists Conference in Orlando, Florida