Treatment mechanism and outcome measures in social and communication intervention trials for autism spectrum disorder:

拟议的项目将考虑目前与自闭症谱系障碍儿童干预措施相关的挑战，这些挑战是缺乏适当的结果措施和对干预机制的了解有限。首先，该项目将测试新开发的结果测量的统计和临床有效性，社会和沟通变化的简要观察（BOSCC）。假设BOSCC对变化的敏感性高于ADOS和其他现有结局指标。其次，该项目将寻求为PACT治疗提供信息和测试假设的机制模型。据推测，治疗效果将部分解释通过两步机制，通过父母的同步性和儿童启动，并在PACT-G的情况下，也部分通过泛化的新技能的背景。

The proposed project will consider the current challenges associated with interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), these being the lack of appropriate outcome measures and the limited understanding of mechanisms underlying interventions. Firstly, the project will test the statistical and clinical validity of a newly developed outcome measure, the Brief Observation of Social and Communication Change (BOSCC). It is hypothesised that the BOSCC will show greater sensitivity to change than the ADOS and other existing outcome measures. Secondly, the project will seek to inform and test the hypothesised mechanism model for the PACT therapy. It is hypothesised that the treatment effect will be partly explained via a two-step mechanism via parental synchrony and child initiations and, in the case of PACT-G, also partly by generalization of new skills across contexts.