Parent Training to Enhance Social Success for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

NCT03177525 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 41867
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 22
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit characteristic deficits in social initiation and there are no empirically validated treatments specifically for this core deficit. While parent training is known to be a critical intervention component, few social skills programs involve parents. This study will capitalize on an existing social skills group already established at the community agency Abilities United, with the goal of enhancing the program's effectiveness by adding a parent component. Specifically, the proposed study will investigate whether a novel parent mediated social skills program (Social SUCCESS), which provides parent training in conjunction with a social skills group intervention, will result in more frequent initiations during play with typically developing peers. Participants will include 50 children with ASD age 4:0 to 6:11 years. Children will be randomly assigned to either Social SUCCESS (N=25) or waiting list (N=25). Treatment will be provided for 8 weeks during a weekly 120-minute social skills group at Abilities United. The study will evaluate the effects of Social SUCCESS on areas of core social deficit including frequency of peer initiations using parent ratings, observational measures, standardized questionnaires, and a social eye tracking task. Outcomes will be compared to a waiting list control group. Findings will be disseminated through presentations and publications to aid clinicians in providing more effective social skills treatment for children with ASD and to enhance the scientific knowledge-base related to evidence-based social skills treatments. This research designed with the goal of stimulating additional scientific inquiry in the area of treatment for core social deficits in ASD and will provide a strong foundation for larger scale grants to study motivation-based interventions to improve social functioning.

Conditions

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Keywords

parent training; social skills

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Change in Visual Analog Scale Rating from Baseline to Week 12

  Parent rating on a Visual Analog Scale (VAS) of the child's frequency of initiation will be compared between Baseline and Week 12 to evaluate change

  Baseline, Week 12

Secondary Outcomes (4)

• Change in frequency of child initiations

  Baseline, Week 12

• Change in parent fidelity of implementation

  Baseline, Week 12

• Social Responsiveness Scale, Second Edition

  Baseline, Week 12, 3-month Follow-up

• Social Skills Improvement System

  Baseline, Week 12, 3-month Follow-up

Study Arms (2)

Social SUCCESS

EXPERIMENTAL

Behavioral: Social SUCCESS

Wait List

OTHER

Behavioral: Wait List

Interventions

Social SUCCESS BEHAVIORAL

Social SUCCESS will run for 12 weeks, with up to 5 children with ASD per group. Parents will attend didactic group sessions focused on motivating children with ASD to initiate to peers (90 min weekly) and will attend a portion of the existing 90 min social group to practice applying these strategies with their children and peer volunteers. Parent training will utilize the manual "Improving Socialization in Individuals with Autism".

Social SUCCESS

Wait List BEHAVIORAL

Participants assigned to the Wait List will continue stable community treatments for 12 weeks and will be provided an intervention similar to Social SUCCESS upon completion of all post measures.

Wait List

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 4 Years - 6 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• child aged 4.0 to 6.11 years
• child diagnosed with ASD (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule; ADOS-2)
• child without intellectual disability (Stanford Binet Intelligence Scales; SB-5)
• parent able to consistently participate in parent training sessions and complete study measures

You may not qualify if:

• child with other severe psychiatric disorder
• child with known genetic condition (e.g., Fragile X, Retts)
• child with unstable medical condition (e.g., active seizures)

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Stanford University: lead

Study Sites (1)

Stanford University

Stanford, California, 94305, United States

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Autism Spectrum Disorder; Social Skills

Interventions

Waiting Lists

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Child Development Disorders, Pervasive; Neurodevelopmental Disorders; Mental Disorders; Social Behavior; Behavior

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Appointments and Schedules; Organization and Administration; Health Services Administration

Study Officials

• Grace W Gengoux, PhD

  Stanford University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Clinical Associate Professor

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: June 1, 2017
• First Posted: June 6, 2017
• Study Start: August 9, 2017
• Primary Completion: November 12, 2021
• Study Completion: November 23, 2021
• Last Updated: December 10, 2021

Record last verified: 2021-12

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (1)