Social Skills Intervention for Adolescents with High Functioning Autism/Asperger

描述（由申请人提供）：自闭症是一种复杂的神经系统疾病，影响着这个国家的150万人。不恰当的社会交往是自闭症患者常见的缺陷之一，它会导致无数的负面后果，包括其他领域的功能低下、就业和个人选择受限。神经系统内的结构和功能异常被认为是“社会智力”缺陷的一部分，独立于一般智力，在患有这种疾病的儿童中被确定。训练干预计划，当基于研究的治疗方法来解决这种社会智力成分时，可以改善高功能自闭症和阿斯伯格综合症（HFA/AS）儿童的这些问题行为，这些障碍通常属于自闭症谱系。我们与北卡罗来纳大学医学院精神学系的TEACCH项目（自闭症及相关沟通障碍儿童的治疗和教育）以及最古老的虚拟世界社交网络平台DigitalSpace合作，提出了一个名为MeetMe的激励干预项目。MeetMe增强了传统的同化指导治疗方法，使用基于虚拟现实的社交网络和多媒体补偿技术来解决这一群体中发现的独特认知缺陷。实现集成了游戏，流媒体视频和共享虚拟世界的新组合，系统地将社交情境划分为谨慎的行为，解释社交交换背后的外延，并通过与动态共享社交虚拟环境中的其他人进行实时练习来鼓励泛化。通过基于泛化探针的社会行为学习和转移到虚拟世界的前/后评估，将对被诊断为HFA/AS的青少年建立项目效果。在第二阶段，目标行为将扩展到该患者年龄组在学校、家庭和公共环境中发现的多种社会智力缺陷，并将通过更大规模的受试者试验以严格的方式评估其疗效。所有课程和虚拟空间的互联网传输将保证广泛的地理覆盖范围，并允许专业人员方便地与儿童远程互动，为服务不足的地区定制治疗，同时建立商业价值。这一应用将显著增加HFA/AS儿童所经历的社会缺陷的治疗选择，并为临床医生提供一种经过验证的干预方法，可用于目前因地理限制而无法获得服务的患者。这种增强的社会能力可以为这些人带来新的生活和就业机会，并通过显著降低长期护理成本使社会受益，现在自闭症患者每年平均花费350亿美元。这个项目将提供一个激励和有效的新的行为干预项目，叫做MeetMe，教自闭症青少年适当的社会互动。互联网的提供将加强和扩展家庭、学校和偏远地区儿童的治疗方法，这些地方没有训练有素的治疗师。除了提供一种创新的干预工具外，通过该项目进行的研究将推进有关使用多媒体工具治疗社交和学习障碍的科学知识，并促进对自闭症儿童行为干预策略的更好理解。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Autism is a complex neurological disorder that affects 1.5 million individuals in this country. Inappropriate social interactions, one of the deficits common to individuals with autism, cause a myriad of negative outcomes including poor functioning in other areas and limited employment and personal options. Structural and functional abnormalities within the neural system are postulated to be part of the deficit in 'social intelligence', independent of general intelligence, identified in children with this disorder. Training intervention programs, when based on researched treatment methods that address this social intelligence component, can ameliorate these problematic behaviors in children with high functioning autism and Asperger Syndrome (HFA/AS), disorders often grouped in the autism spectrum. We have joined forces with the TEACCH program (Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication-handicapped Children) in the Department of Psychiatry at the University Of North Carolina School Of Medicine and DigitalSpace, the oldest virtual worlds social networking platform, to propose a motivating intervention program called MeetMe. MeetMe augments conventional assimilation instruction therapy methods with virtual reality-based social networking and multimedia compensation techniques to address unique cognitive deficits identified in this group. Implementation integrates novel combinations of gaming, streaming videos and shared virtual worlds to systematically segment social situations into discreet behaviors, explain denotation behind social exchanges, and encourage generalization through real-time practice with other people in dynamic shared social virtual environments. Program efficacy will be established with adolescents who have been diagnosed with HFA/AS through pre/post assessment of social behaviors learned and transferred to virtual worlds based on generalization probes. In Phase II the target behaviors will be extended to multiple social intelligence deficits identified in school, home, and public environments in this patient age group and efficacy will be assessed in a rigorous manner using larger subject trials. Internet delivery of all lessons and virtual spaces will guarantee broad geographic coverage and allow professionals to conveniently interact with children remotely, customizing therapy to underserved locations while establishing commercial value. This application will significantly increase treatment options for social deficits experienced by children with HFA/AS and provide clinicians with a proven intervention method that is usable with patients not now being served because of geographical limitations. This increased social competency can open new life and employment opportunities to these individuals and benefit society by significantly lowering long term care costs, now averaging $35 billion dollars a year for autism. This project would provide a motivating and effective new behavior intervention program called MeetMe to teach appropriate social interactions to adolescents with autism. Internet delivery will enhance and extend treatment methods possible for children at home, school, and remote locations where trained therapists are not available. In addition to contributing an innovative intervention tool, the research conducted through this project will advance scientific knowledge regarding the use of multimedia tools for treatment in social and learning disorders and promote greater understanding of behavior intervention strategies for children with autism.