Improving Academic and Social Functioning in Middle-Schoolers With Autism

The BRIEF-2 assesses real-world EF behaviors in the home and school environments.

The T-scores range from 30:99 with higher scores being worse.

The HPC assesses Homework Completion and Homework Management. Scores for Homework Completion range from 0 to 36 and for Homework Management from 0 to 21. Lower scores are better.

The teacher-completed APRS assesses how well the adolescent is performing academically with 3 subscales (Academic Success, Academic Productivity, and Impulse Control). The two scores to be used in the current study include the Academic Success score which ranges from 7 to 35, while the Academic Productivity score ranges from 12 to 60. Higher scores are better.

The COSS is a psychometrically strong rating scale assessing Organized Actions, Task Planning, and Memory & Materials Management. The T scores for each subscale range from 20 to 83 and higher scores indicate worse functioning.

The WCPA is an objective measure of metacognition (i.e., planning, inhibition, problem solving, keeping track of rules, and monitoring passage of time) while performing a multiple-step activity (i.e., scheduling multiple appointments while adhering to various rules). The WCPA will report total appointments entered (0 to 10) and total correct appointments entered (0 to 10) with higher values being better.

The TRIAD assesses social skills (i.e., emotion understanding and perspective taking, initiating and ending interactions, responding to others, maintaining interactions and problem solving, and following social rules) rated on a 1 to 4 scale (1=not very well to 4=very well). Items rated 2 or less are considered areas of weakness. Items rated as 3 or above are considered areas of strength.