Building Social Skills With Interdisciplinary Process Drama in ASD

NCT03536351 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: IRB_0091961
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 15
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

This is a one group pre-post feasibility study of an interdisciplinary (theatre, Occupational Therapy (OT) and Speech Language Pathology (SLP)) intervention targeted at social skill development in children, aged 3-4. The intervention uses process drama modified with OT and SLP techniques and using typically developing peer models . Feasibility outcomes are recruitment rates, retention rates, daily program records of ease of implementing the program, and record of modifications needed. Child primary outcomes are Social Skills Improvement Scale (SSIS) and the Theory of Mind (ToM) Battery and Inventory within 4 weeks of program end. Secondary outcomes will be the Structured Play Assessment (SPA) within 4 weeks post-intervention, observations of social interactions (e.g.,eye contract, joint attention, verbal utterances, physical contact) during intervention sessions, brain activity in frontal and temporal/parietal areas during ToM tasks measured by high density EEG within 4 weeks of program end, and parental interview at 3 months related to child's social skills.

Conditions

Autistic Disorder

Keywords

social skills; child; theory of mind; drama; occupational therapy; speech-language pathology; neural activation

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (4)

• Social Skills Improvement Scale

  Parent rating of statements about child's social interactions as never, seldom, often, almost always. These are transformed to numeric scores, varying with the content of the item, either ranging from 0-3 or 1-3. Each subscale has a different number of items. Subscales of communication, cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, engagement, self-control scores, externalizing problem behaviors, bullying, hyperactivity/inattention, and internalizing problem behaviors items are summed to obtain subscale raw scores, which are translated into "below average", "average", and "above average", based on age and gender normative data. The autism spectrum subscale is scored the same way.

  4 weeks post intervention

• Theory of Mind Battery & Inventory

  Performance test of ToM activities and parent ratings of statements of child behavior in ToM situations

  4 weeks post intervention

• recruitment

  ability to recruit needed number of participants in time frame availability

  pre intervention

• retention

  number of participants who completed 4 week assessment and parental interview

  4 weeks post- and 3 months post-intervention

Secondary Outcomes (5)

• Structured Play Assessment

  4 weeks post intervention

• Brain activity during ToM tasks

  4 weeks post intervention

• Parental perceptions of social skills

  3 months post intervention

• Changes in social skills during program

  12 weeks during program

• modifications needed to program

  12 weeks during program

Study Arms (1)

Interdisciplinary process drama

EXPERIMENTAL

Process drama program (3 days/week, 12 weeks, 1-1.5 hours per session) of movement-based activities combining music and drama. Activities have been planned by a collaborative team of drama teachers, occupational therapists, and speech language pathologists, and target understanding emotion, intentions and appropriate social interactions.

Behavioral: Interdisciplinary process drama

Interventions

Interdisciplinary process drama BEHAVIORAL

Process drama program (3 days/week, 12 weeks, 1-1.5 hours per session) of movement-based activities combining music and drama. Activities that target understanding of emotions, intentions, and appropriate social interactions have been planned by a team of drama teachers, occupational therapists, and speech-language pathologists.

Interdisciplinary process drama

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 3 Years - 4 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• aged 3-4 years old
• documented diagnosis of ASD from a licensed professional using DSM 5 criteria12; If no documentation available, meets cut off on Autism Diagnostic Observation Scale (ADOS -2)13 that will be administered by trained study staff.
• passes language and cognitive screen (see attached screening document with decision rules) and a receptive language age equivalence of ≥30 months and a non-verbal age equivalent score of ≥30 months on the Mullen Scale of Early Learning
• have a caregiver willing/able to bring them to the University for the study sessions and to schedule up to 3 assessment visits prior to intervention start and 3 assessment sessions after intervention end
• family's primary language is English
• aged 3-4
• normal or corrected to normal vision and hearing
• English speaking

You may not qualify if:

• have no other major medical conditions (i.e., no genetic disorders such as Fragile X, Down syndrome)
• seizure disorder
• uncorrected hearing or visual impairment
• other condition causing motor impairment, such as Cerebral Palsy
• history of developmental delay or neurological disorder

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Utah: lead

Study Sites (1)

University of Utah

Salt Lake City, Utah, 84108, United States

Location

Related Publications (3)

• Corbett BA, Key AP, Qualls L, Fecteau S, Newsom C, Coke C, Yoder P. Improvement in Social Competence Using a Randomized Trial of a Theatre Intervention for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord. 2016 Feb;46(2):658-72. doi: 10.1007/s10803-015-2600-9.

  PMID: 26419766 RESULT

• Pelphrey KA, Morris JP, McCarthy G. Grasping the intentions of others: the perceived intentionality of an action influences activity in the superior temporal sulcus during social perception. J Cogn Neurosci. 2004 Dec;16(10):1706-16. doi: 10.1162/0898929042947900.

  PMID: 15701223 RESULT

• Thomas MS, Davis R, Karmiloff-Smith A, Knowland VC, Charman T. The over-pruning hypothesis of autism. Dev Sci. 2016 Mar;19(2):284-305. doi: 10.1111/desc.12303. Epub 2015 Apr 6.

  PMID: 25845529 RESULT

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Autistic Disorder; Social Skills

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Autism Spectrum Disorder; Child Development Disorders, Pervasive; Neurodevelopmental Disorders; Mental Disorders; Social Behavior; Behavior

Study Officials

• Lorie G Richards, PhD

  University of Utah

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NA
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: SINGLE GROUP
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Chair and Associate Professor

Model Details: One group design

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: May 14, 2018
• First Posted: May 24, 2018
• Study Start: July 1, 2018
• Primary Completion: January 15, 2019
• Study Completion: January 15, 2019
• Last Updated: August 19, 2020

Record last verified: 2020-08

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (1)