Teaching Academic Success Skills to Middle School Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) with Executive Functioning Deficits

项目摘要/摘要：患有自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)的儿童存在许多缺陷 在执行功能(EF)中，包括计划、灵活性、抑制、转移设置、生成性、元认知、 行动监控、时间管理和概括信息。然而，EFS是学术成功的关键 性能。儿童必须能够执行多步骤的事件序列，表现出心理灵活性， 思考、推理、计划(例如，按时完成多个科目的不同任务)，思维灵活 (例如，选择最有效的学习策略)，并监控他们的表现(例如，管理进度和 检查错误)才能在教育环境中取得成功。对这些EF技能的需求是特别大的 随着孩子们过渡到中学环境，这与许多挑战相关，包括 提高了对成就和行为的期望，丰富了家庭作业，增加了社交 复杂性，对组织和计划/时间管理的要求增加，学习从死记硬背 抽象概念学习等任务。考虑到他们在EF和社交方面的问题，这并不奇怪 能力方面，患有自闭症的儿童在中学阶段表现出较高的学业问题。事实上，在 中学时期，自闭症儿童的学习成绩平均比正常儿童低5年。 同伴们。然而，针对自闭症儿童学习技能的EF干预措施很少，也没有证据表明-- 对患有自闭症的中学生采取的干预措施。使用迭代和协作的设计流程，我们 打算将为EF缺陷(即ADHD)的其他人群开发的干预内容调整为高 被诊断为自闭症的正常中学生(7年级)。适应这些学术EF技能 对ASD的干预是理想的，因为它们有时间限制，易于小组管理，并强调 面对日常学习和行为挣扎的父母的关键角色 养育一名患有自闭症的学生。此外，它利用了共同的特征(例如，EF赤字)和共同 两种疾病的循证干预(例如，行为原则)。通过整合利益相关者 反馈在迭代设计过程的每个步骤中，我们将定制干预措施以直接满足需求 患有自闭症的年轻人。我们将研究由此产生的教学学术的可行性和可接受性 对患有自闭症的父母和青少年进行技能到儿童(任务)干预，并检查对EF的初步疗效， 公开试验中的学术技能和教育结果。任务有可能影响到大量的 患有自闭症的年轻人，因为大约50%的自闭症患者被认为是高自闭症 功能性“，其中大多数人的EF缺陷与功能较低的同龄人一样严重。 据估计，ASD患者的一生成本为每个患者140万美元。因此，NIH ASD研究 优先事项包括开发在关键过渡时期(例如，中学)提供的新疗法 提高学业成绩。

Project Summary/Abstract: Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) present with numerous deficits in executive functioning (EF) including planning, flexibility, inhibition, shifting set, generativity, metacognition, action monitoring, time management, and generalizing information. Yet EFs are critical to successful academic performance. Children must be able to perform multistep sequences of events, demonstrate mental flexibility, reflect, reason, plan (e.g., complete different tasks for several subjects on time), be flexible in their thinking (e.g., select the most effective learning strategy), and monitor their performance (e.g., manage progress and check for mistakes) to succeed in the educational environment. There is a particular demand for these EF skills as children transition to the middle school environment which is associated with numerous challenges including increased expectations for achievement and behavior, copious homework assignments, increasing social complexity, increased demands on organization and planning/time management, learning that moves from rote tasks to abstract conceptual learning, etc. Not surprisingly, given their problems with EF and social competency, children with ASD evidence high levels of academic problems in middle school. In fact, during middle schools years, the academic performance of children with ASD is on average 5 years below their typical peers. Yet there are few EF interventions targeting academic skills for children with ASD and no evidence- based interventions for middle school youth with ASD. Using an iterative and collaborative design process, we intend to adapt intervention content developed for other populations with EF deficits (i.e., ADHD) for high functioning middle-school students (7th graders) diagnosed with ASD. Adapting these academic EF skills interventions for ASD is ideal because they are time-limited, amenable to group administration, and emphasize the crucial role of the parent who confronts the daily academic and behavioral struggles that often come with rearing a student with ASD. Further, it capitalizes on the shared characteristics (e.g., EF deficits) and common evidence-based interventions (e.g., behavioral principles) of the two disorders. By incorporating stakeholder feedback at every step of an iterative design process we will tailor the intervention to directly address the needs of the youth with ASD. We will examine the feasibility and acceptability of the resultant Teaching Academic Skills to Kids (TASK) intervention for parents and youth with ASD, and examine preliminary efficacy on EF, academic skills, and educational outcomes in an open trial. TASK has the potential to impact a large number of youths with ASD since approximately 50% of the population of individuals with ASD are considered “high functioning”, the majority of whom present with EF deficits as severe as their lower functioning counterparts. The lifetime cost for an individual with ASD is estimated to be $1.4 million per patient. Thus, NIH ASD research priorities include developing novel treatments delivered during pivotal transition times (e.g., middle-school) that improve school outcomes.