Establishment of Social Skills Training Group in Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder and Effectiveness Analysis

National Taiwan University

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Autism Spectrum Disorder

Treatments: Behavioral: Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS®)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05857813

202109033RIND

Details and patient eligibility

About

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts, and the presence of restricted, repetitive behavior and interests, affecting 1 in 68 children. Although atypical social deficits onset in early childhood, their social relationships with peers may remain a challenge or even worsen for individuals with ASD throughout the school years and beyond, as social contexts increase in complexity and pose higher social expectations.

Enrollment: 120 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 11 to 20 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• aged 11-20 years, currently enrolled in school between the sixth grade of elementary school and the third year of high school
• with a clinical diagnosis of ASD from a licensed mental health or medical professional based on DSM-5
• experiencing social difficulties as reported by parents in a structured intake interview
• scored ≧ 26 on the caregiver-reported Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ), indicating clinical impairment associated with ASD
• demonstrating verbal fluency in Chinese
• with a full-scale IQ > 70 on WAIS-IV
• with motivation to participate in the intervention;
• with a caregiver who was fluent in Chinese and willing to participate as a social coach in the study.

Exclusion criteria

• a history of major mental illness (e.g., bipolar affective disorder, schizophrenia, or psychosis) or neurological diseases that might hinder participation in the treatment
• visual impairment and/or hearing impairment that would preclude participation in group-based social activities.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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120 participants in 1 patient group

ASD teens and their caregiver

Experimental group

Description:

Teens: (1) aged 11-20 years, currently enrolled in school between the sixth grade of elementary school and the third year of high school; (2) with a clinical diagnosis of ASD from a licensed mental health or medical professional based on DSM-5; (3) experiencing social difficulties as reported by parents in a structured intake interview; (4) scored ≧ 26 on the caregiver-reported Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ), indicating clinical impairment associated with ASD (5) demonstrating verbal fluency in Chinese (6) with a full-scale IQ \> 70 on WAIS-IV; (7) with motivation to participate in the intervention; (8) with a caregiver who was fluent in Chinese and willing to participate as a social coach in the study. Parents: (1) demonstrating verbal fluency in Chinese (2) with motivation to participate in the intervention and assist their children to do the homework assignments.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS®)