Improving the Social Skills of Children with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Intervention Study

Previous research has found that although most children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (HFASD) desire friendship, they have fewer and less stable friendships and report more loneliness than their peers. They also tend to be socially naïve, vulnerable to deception and more often bullied. A significant contributor to their challenges is an impaired Theory of Mind (ToM), which is the ability to reason about mental states (e.g. knowledge, emotions, desires, beliefs, intentions). While social difficulties define ASD, research suggests that visual processing may be a relative strength. This bias favoring visual information over verbal mental representations appears to have enabled some children to gain mental state understanding via the use of visual supports. Since peer acceptance is a powerful predictor of mental health and the risks of peer rejection—and benefits of friendship— extend into adulthood, it is important to teach friendship-making skills. This was the broad objective of the study, which drew upon research demonstrating that despite deficits in ToM, children with HFASD have strengths in visual processing which can be utilized to enhance learning. A visually scaffolded, social skills and Theory of Mind intervention (S.S.ToM) for children with HFASD was designed and evaluated and compared to Children’s Friendship Training (CFT), a well-respected social skills intervention and a delayed treatment control group (DTC). Between-group comparisons revealed significant differences between the S.S.ToM and DTC groups on two measures of social responsiveness. Within-group differences for the S.S.ToM group were significant for all social responsiveness and ToM measures. Between- and within-group results were not as strong for the CFT group, however, there were fewer participants in this group and the lack of significance could be attributed to a lack of power. As a preliminary examination this study suggests that the S.S. ToM is an effective intervention but further research is needed.Ph.D