KONTAKT Australia a Social Skills Group Training for Adolescents on the Autism Spectrum

Curtin University

Status

Completed

Conditions

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Treatments

Other: Super Chef

Behavioral: KONTAKT Australia

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT03294668

HRE2017-0245

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study evaluates the KONTAKT social skills group training in Australian adolescents on the autism spectrum compared to an active control group which is a group cooking class

Full description

KONTAKT is a manualized Social Skills Group Training program designed for children and adolescents with ASD which aims to improve communication, social interaction skills, reduce the severity of ASD symptoms, improve the ability to empathise and adapt in a group setting. A large randomized controlled trial in Sweden found that adolescents who participated in KONTAKT demonstrated improvements in social skills, behaviour, reduced stress and improved overall functioning as reported by parents immediately following and at three months after the program. However, social skills are at least in part influenced by social cultural contexts and there is a need to understand the feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of KONTAKT in an Australian context. Moreover, in the previous studies, the social skills groups were compared to treatment as usual groups. Therefore, this study evaluates the KONTAKT social skills group training in Australian adolescents on the autism spectrum compared to an active control group which is a group cooking class

Enrollment

90 patients

Sex

All

Ages

12 to 17 years old

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Individuals aged 12 to 17
Clinical consensus diagnosis of ASD as defined by DSM-5 and confirmed by the Autism Diagnostic Observation schedule-2
IQ scores > 70 as measured by the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence - Second Edition (WASI-II)

Exclusion criteria

Existing prior comorbid externalizing behaviours as assessed by the Childhood Behaviour Checklist (CBCL).
Clinically assessed self-injurious behaviour
Low intrinsic motivation to participate in a social skills training group
Insufficient English language skills