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，有希望的初始收益往往无法维持或推广。我们的目标是在一个创新的社区服务模式中，为患有自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的大龄儿童和青少年制定干预措施。我们的治疗结合了几种有据可查的行为策略，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。该提案扩展了有前途的试点调查结果的感觉剧院的方法-一个综合的行为方法与戏剧技术提供了一个支持性的同行为中介的计划。以前的研究表明，社交技能的改善和压力的减少。拟议的项目将使用随机组间实验来扩展研究结果，以更仔细地评估先前检测到的社会互动和压力反应的变化是否是由于治疗以及这些变化的推广和维持程度。这些问题将在8至16岁的ASD儿童和青少年中得到解决。测量方案将评估由熟悉的（治疗师，父母，同伴）和不熟悉的（盲评者，其他同伴）线人在近端（评估，剧院）和远端（家庭，操场，学校）环境中测量的社交互动技能的获得。此外，还将进行社会认知/感知的神经心理学测量。最后，我们将通过观察（行为编码）和其他报告（父母和自我）措施来衡量社会压力反应的变化。如果预期的研究结果得到证实，该项目将提供经验支持，利用同伴模型在社区为基础的治疗，具有普遍性和维持一组核心赤字，否则有终身的后果与ASD儿童的影响。

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.