Peers, play and performance to improve social interaction in autism

描述(由申请人提供)：目前对自闭症的心理社会干预通常只针对社会知识或功能的特定方面。此外，有希望的最初收益往往无法维持或概括。我们的目标是以创新的社区服务模式解决为患有自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)的年龄较大的儿童和青少年制定干预措施的需求。我们的治疗结合了几种有充分证据的行为策略，分为三类(同伴、游戏和表现)，这些策略在过去的社会干预中得到了支持。该提案扩展了Sense Theatre方法的有希望的试点发现--一种行为方法与戏剧技术的综合，在一个支持性的同行调解计划中提供。之前的研究已经表明，社交技能的提高和压力的减轻。拟议的项目将使用随机的小组间实验来扩展研究结果，以更仔细地评估之前检测到的社交互动和压力响应性的变化是否源于治疗，以及这些变化概括和保持的程度。这些问题将在患有8至16岁自闭症的儿童和青年中得到解决。测量方案将评估在近距离(评估、剧院)和远距离(家庭、操场、学校)背景下，由熟悉的(治疗师、家长、同伴)和不熟悉的(盲人评分者、其他同伴)信息者衡量的社交技能的获得。此外，还将进行社会认知/知觉的神经心理学测量。最后，我们将通过观察性(行为编码)和其他报告(父母和自我)措施来衡量社会压力响应性的变化。如果预期的结果得到证实，该项目将为在以社区为基础的治疗中利用同伴模式提供经验支持，这种治疗对一系列核心缺陷具有普遍和持续的影响，否则这些缺陷将对患有自闭症的儿童产生终身影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Current psychosocial interventions in autism generally target only specific aspects of social knowledge or functioning. Moreover, promising initial gains often fail to maintain or generalize. Our goal is to address the need for the development of interventions for older children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in an innovative community-service model. Our treatment combines several well-documented behavioral strategies grouped into three categories (peers, play and performance) shown to have support in past social interventions. The proposal extends promising pilot findings of the SENSE Theatre approach - a synthesis of behavioral approaches with theatrical techniques delivered in a supportive peer-mediated program. Previous studies have shown improvement in social interaction skills and reduced stress. The proposed project will extend the findings using a randomized between-group experiment to more carefully assess whether previously detected changes in social interaction and stress responsivity are due to the treatment and the extent to which these changes generalize and maintain. These questions will be addressed in children and youth with ASD 8 to 16 years. The measurement protocol will assess the acquisition of social interaction skills measured by familiar (therapist, parent, peer) and unfamiliar (blind raters, other peers) informants across proximal (assessment, theatre) and distal (home, playground, school) contexts. Additionally, neuropsychological measures of social cognition/perception will be administered. Finally, we will measure change in social stress responsivity via observational (behavioral coding) and other-report (parental and self) measures. If expected findings are confirmed, this project will provide empirical support for the utilization of peer models in a community-based treatment that has generalized and maintained effects on a set of core deficits that otherwise have life-long consequences for children with ASD.