Parent-Assisted Social Skills Training to Improve Friendships in Teens with Autism Spectrum Disorders

The following is an abstract from the research of Dr. Elizabeth Laugeson, Fred Frankel, Catherine Mogil and Ashely Dillon, on the PEERS® program. The full research article is available at: Research | Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior (ucla.edu)

Abstract

This study examines the efficacy of a manualized parent-assisted social skills intervention in comparison with a matched Delayed Treatment Control group to improve friendship quality and social skills among teens 13–17 years of age with autism spectrum disorders. Targeted skills included conversational skills, peer entry and exiting skills, developing friendship networks, good sportsmanship, good host behavior during get-togethers, changing bad reputations, and handling teasing, bullying, and arguments. Results revealed, in comparison with the control group, that the treatment group significantly improved their knowledge of social skills, increased frquency of hosted get-togethers, and improved overall social skills as reported by parents. Possibly due to poor return rate of questionnaires, social skills improvement reported by teachers was not significant. Future research should provide follow-up data to test the durability of treatment.

Introduction

Being placed in regular education classrooms has been a mixed blessing for individuals with Asperger’s Disorder and high-functioning autism (Burack et al. 1997). On the one hand, such placement has been associated with increases in the complexity of interactions and decreases in nonsocial activity, in comparison to special education settings (Sigman and Ruskin 1999). On the other hand, these individuals report often feeling lonelier and having poorer quality friendships (Capps et al. 1996) than their typically developing classmates (Bauminger and Kasari 2000). Sigman and Ruskin (1999) noted that only 27% of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in their sample had a best friend in comparison to 41% of children with developmental disabilities having a best friend. Adolescence is a particularly troubling period for persons with ASD:

High-functioning autistic adolescents, in particular, become more keenly aware of the difficulties they encounter when interacting with peers. At a time when ‘‘fitting in’’ is of overriding importance, these young people may find themselves isolated, rejected or even bullied at school (Tse et al. 2007, p. 1960). Among typically developing children, best friendships become stable by about the fourth grade (Frankel 1996 McGuire and Weisz 1982). Having one or two best friends is of great importance to later adjustment, can buffer the impact of stressful life events (Miller and Ingham 1976), and correlates positively with self-esteem and negatively with anxious and depressive symptoms (Buhrmester 1990).

In typically developing children, best friends may promote the development of social competence: while conflicts with acquaintances can inhibit future social interaction, conflicts among best friends and their resolution are associated with subsequent increases on measures of social problem solving (Nelson and Aboud 1985).

Although typically developing teens often learn basic social rules through observation of peer behavior and/or specific instruction from parents (Gralinski and Kopp 1993; Rubin and Sloman 1984), adolescents with ASD often require further instruction. Learning to make and keep friends may be especially difficult for the teen with ASD, since the natural development and transmission of necessary peer etiquette requires generally positive and sustained interaction with peers and learning from best friends.

Continued isolation makes deficits in the knowledge of peer etiquette more obvious as the child with ASD gets older. Not surprisingly, as adults, many individuals with ASD lack community connections and friendships that are taken for granted by typically developing persons (Baxter 1997). Thus, teaching the skills necessary to make and keep friends has significant life long impact for persons with ASD….

Read full research report at: Research | Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior (ucla.edu)