Social Skills in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders (SSD_ASD)

May 21, 2014 updated by: Yale University

A Randomized Trial of a Structured Social Skills Development Progam for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

To evaluate whether a structured social skills program, called Social Skills Development,is superior to a wait list control group on measures of interpersonal interaction. The Social Skills Development (SSD) is a 16-week, group intervention that uses activities and peer tutors to promote interpersonal skills in children 8 to 11 years of age with Autism Spectrum Disorders.Following a diagnostic and social skills assessment,children are randomly assigned to SSD or wait list for 16 weeks. Children who were randomized to the wait list are offered SSD at Week 16. Children randomized to SSD are followed for 9 months to assess the durability of gains during the first 16 weeks.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This project is designed to evaluate the acceptability and initial efficacy of a structured group treatment intervention for enhancing social behavior in 40 children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). An important long-term goal of this project was to develop a model for delivery of social skills training that could be tested in a larger trial and ultimately exported to schools and community settings. To accomplish these aims, we designed a randomized clinical trial to evaluate a structured social skills program for school age children with pervasive developmental disorders (PDDs)compared to a Wait List control group. Specific aims included gathering preliminary evidence on the efficacy of the intervention on various parent measures of behavior, as well as an assessment of overall social functioning by an independent rater who would be blind to treatment assignment. The Social Skills Development program uses semi-structured activities and peer tutors to promote interpersanal skills. To evaluate acceptability of the program, we planned to track attendance, attrition and parent satisfaction in the trial. Finally, to evaluate the durability of gains achieved during the Social Skills Development program, we re-assessed the subjects initially randomized to the active treatment group at 9 months post-treatment.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

44

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • Connecticut
      • New Haven, Connecticut, United States, 06520
        • Yale Child Study Center

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

8 years to 11 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • 8 to 11 years
  • Full Scale IQ score > 70
  • PDD diagnosis (autism, Asperger's, PDD-Not Otherwise Specified)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • concurrent, untreated psychiatric disorder(such as anxiety, depression or conduct disorder)

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Clinical Global Impression for Improvement
Time Frame: 16 weeks
16 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Social Competence Inventory
Time Frame: 16 weeks
16 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Lawrence D Scahill, MSN,PhD, Yale University Child Study Center

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

July 1, 2003

Primary Completion (Actual)

January 1, 2005

Study Completion (Actual)

January 1, 2005

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 21, 2014

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 21, 2014

First Posted (Estimate)

May 26, 2014

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

May 26, 2014

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 21, 2014

Last Verified

May 1, 2014

More Information

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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