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

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.