Social Skills Interventions 2
The purpose of this research assignment was to examine social skills interventions for
children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Boutot (2017) describes social skills as socially
acceptable learned behaviors that enable a person to interact with others in ways that elicit
positive responses and assist in avoiding negative responses. Social skills are necessary for an
individual to be able to be successful in society. The goal of social skills training is not to get
them to initiate more frequently but to get them to initiate more appropriately (Boutot, 2017).
I have located two excellent scholarly journal articles this week that specifically pertain
to social skills intervention. Corona et al. (2019) focuses on the social skill intervention called
PEERS and how it has affected parenting stress.
The APA (American Psychiatric Association) has described autism as the deficits in
social communication as well as restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior. When children
with autism are in their adolescence social demands begin to be heightened. Social rules also
begin to be more complex and participation in social activities and within peer relationships start
to become limited. This is why social skills intervention is necessary. Social skills interventions
is an evidence-based practice for enhancing communication and interpersonal skills in
individuals with ASD (Corona et al., 2019). Children with autism want social relationships but
suffer from deficits when it comes to communication and social reciprocity, and this leads to key
social behaviors being impacted.
Corona et al. (2019) wanted to examine the effect that the social skills intervention
PEERS had on the stress of parents of adolescents with ASD. Parents of children with autism do
have higher levels of stress when compared to parents who do not have a child with autism.
What exactly is PEERS you might be thinking? PEERS stands for the Program for the Education
Social Skills Interventions 3
and Enrichment of Relational Skills and is a manualized group social skills intervention for ASD
adolescents. Corona et al. (2019) states that PEERS is a parent-assisted program, such as that
parents attend treatment sessions and learn strategies for supporting social skills practice and
development. The participants for their study consisted of 25 adolescents with an average age of
13.8 years old who were from upstate New York and from 2016 until 2019 were enrolled in the
PEERS program. There were 45 total adolescents in the PEERS program during those years but
only 25 were analyzed for the Corona et al. (2019) study because there was incomplete data for
the other twenty adolescents. To be able to participate in the PEERS program Corona et al.
(2019) states that the adolescent must meet the following criteria:
1.) Between the ages of 12-17 years old
2.) Diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
3.) Showed an interest and understanding in the PEERS program during the in-person
interviews and phone interviews.
To recruit the adolescents for the study, flyers were distributed throughout the Capital Region
of New York. If they were interested, then they had to complete both in-person and telephone
interviews. Both adolescents and parents were required to participate in weekly sessions which
lasted for a total of 14 weeks and focused on get-togethers, trading information, and bullying.
Homework was assigned to help with retention of information between sessions and parents
attended sessions which focused on managing and supporting new skill mastery for their
adolescent children.
To measure social impairment, parents completed a 65 item Likert-scale measure called the
SRS-2 or Social Responsiveness Scale, Second Edition. Parents were required to rate their
child’s social impairment. To measure social skills, parents were also required to complete the
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parent version of the SSIS or the Social Skills Improvement System Rating Scales by rating how
frequently their adolescent child engaged in social skills. The SSIS is a 79 item Likert-scale
measure which evaluates the importance and frequency of problem behaviors and social skills in
children under 18 years old. To measure parenting stress, parents were required to complete the
SIPA or the Stress Index for Parents of Adolescents. The SIPA is a 112 item Likert-scale
measures which examines parenting stress/. Corona et al. (2019) states that three domains are
assessed:
1.) Adolescent Domain including the following subscales: Moodiness or emotional lability,
social isolation, or withdrawal, antisocial or delinquency, and failure to achieve or
persevere.
2.) Parent Domain including the following subscales: Social alienation, life restrictions, guilt
or incompetence, and relationship with spouse or partner.
3.) Adolescent-Parent Relationship
Corona et al. (2019) study demonstrated:
1.) Significant increase in adolescent social skills and significant decrease in severity of
social impairment from pre to post intervention.
2.) Total parenting stress changes from pre to post intervention were not significant.
However, parents did report lower levels of parenting stress after participating in PEERS.
3.) No significant differences from pre to post intervention in the three domains assessed by
the SIPA.
The second article I examined also focused on social skills interventions for children with
autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Dean & Chang (2021) examined studies of school-based
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interventions that were used to assist social skills of students with ASD who were being educated
in inclusive school settings. Social skills interventions have been very successful for individuals
with autism. Most of the research has been completed in clinical settings and not in schools, so
this is an important area to continue researching.
This study by Dean & Chang (2021) examined the following things:
1.) School based social interventions which are designed to support social development
across a wide developmental area for students with autism.
2.) How much typically developing students participate with peers in these specific
interventions.
3.) Social behaviors of students with ASD were recorded within an authentic social
environment at school and this study examined the observation protocols.
4.) Social skills interventions and observation measures are examined.
This study is a literature search study which was conducted for 3 months in 2020. The criteria
that articles must have met to be part of this study by Dean & Chang (2021) is the following:
1.) Article must be in English and published in scientific journals.
2.) Must be focused specifically on school based social skills interventions for children with
autism.
3.) Typically developing students must also be included in the social skills interventions.
4.) Naturalistic observations must have been used to measure social outcomes.
5.) Adequate or strong study methodological quality.
6.) Published in 1990 or later because in 1990 the US Dept of Ed. had ASD added a category
for special education.
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The initial search yielded 2,654 articles which after excluding articles that did not meet the
criteria, Dean & Chang (2021) were left with 18 remaining articles. The articles included 670
participants diagnosed with autism between the ages of 15 months to 16 years old. The following
is the social skills interventions which were used in the 18 different studies which Dean & Chang
(2021) examined:
1.) Pivotal response treatment
2.) Peer support arrangements
3.) Skills v. engage
4.) Joint video monitoring
5.) Legos
6.) Low and high probability request sequences
7.) Circle of friends
8.) Comprehensive peer network
9.) Child v. peer
10.) Remaking recess
11.) Research based v. practice based
12.) Superheroes social skills program
13.) Peer network training
14.) Early start
Dean & Chang (2021) found that observation protocols and social outcomes were quite
similar across the 18 studies and post intervention change was reported across a wide age range.
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References
Corona,FL.FL., Janicki,FC., Milgramm,FA., & Christodulu,FK.FV. (2019). Brief report: Reductions
in parenting stress in the context of PEERS—A social skills intervention for adolescents
with autism spectrum disorder.FJournal of Autism and Developmental Disorders,F49(12),
5073-5077.Fhttps://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04201-y
Dean,FM., & Chang,FY. (2021). A systematic review of school-based social skills interventions
and observed social outcomes for students with autism spectrum disorder in inclusive
settings.FAutism,F25(7), 1828-1843.Fhttps://doi.org/10.1177/13623613211012886
ESV Study Bible. (2008). Crossway Books.
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