Neural and Behavioral Outcomes of Social Skills Groups in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Assesses emotion recognition from facial expression, tone of voice, and posture. This instrument allows for the assessment of basic emotions conveyed by both adult and child models at high and low intensity. Nowicki and Carton [50] have shown that the DANVA2 has acceptable internal consistency for school age children and good test-retest reliability.

Assesses emotion recognition from facial expression, tone of voice, and posture. This instrument allows for the assessment of basic emotions conveyed by both adult and child models at high and low intensity. Nowicki and Carton [50] have shown that the DANVA2 has acceptable internal consistency for school age children and good test-retest reliability.

Assesses emotion recognition from facial expression, tone of voice, and posture. This instrument allows for the assessment of basic emotions conveyed by both adult and child models at high and low intensity. Nowicki and Carton [50] have shown that the DANVA2 has acceptable internal consistency for school age children and good test-retest reliability.

The computerized children's version of the Eyes test is a reduced battery of 28-items measuring an individual's ability to interpret intentions and 'mentalizing' abilities, a hallmark social cognitive deficit in ASD. The adult RMET has shown sensitivity to change in clinical trials and the child version showed promising results in our preliminary analyses (see Preliminary Studies).

The computerized children's version of the Eyes test is a reduced battery of 28-items measuring an individual's ability to interpret intentions and 'mentalizing' abilities, a hallmark social cognitive deficit in ASD. The adult RMET has shown sensitivity to change in clinical trials and the child version showed promising results in our preliminary analyses (see Preliminary Studies).

The computerized children's version of the Eyes test is a reduced battery of 28-items measuring an individual's ability to interpret intentions and 'mentalizing' abilities, a hallmark social cognitive deficit in ASD. The adult RMET has shown sensitivity to change in clinical trials and the child version showed promising results in our preliminary analyses (see Preliminary Studies).

We previously developed two activation tasks that tap different aspects of social cognition: 1) Interpreting Communicative Intent: Participants will view cartoon drawings of children while listening to short vignettes ending with a potentially ironic remark. Participants decide whether the speaker really meant what s/he said. 2) Affect and eye contact: Participants will view full-face pictures of people displaying happy, angry, fearful, or neutral affect. For each emotion, half of the faces show a direct gaze and half show a gaze aversion.

We previously developed two activation tasks that tap different aspects of social cognition: 1) Interpreting Communicative Intent: Participants will view cartoon drawings of children while listening to short vignettes ending with a potentially ironic remark. Participants decide whether the speaker really meant what s/he said. 2) Affect and eye contact: Participants will view full-face pictures of people displaying happy, angry, fearful, or neutral affect. For each emotion, half of the faces show a direct gaze and half show a gaze aversion.

We previously developed two activation tasks that tap different aspects of social cognition: 1) Interpreting Communicative Intent: Participants will view cartoon drawings of children while listening to short vignettes ending with a potentially ironic remark. Participants decide whether the speaker really meant what s/he said. 2) Affect and eye contact: Participants will view full-face pictures of people displaying happy, angry, fearful, or neutral affect. For each emotion, half of the faces show a direct gaze and half show a gaze aversion.

The SRS measures the severity of social impairment in natural settings, assessing social awareness, social information processing, reciprocal social communication, social anxiety/avoidance, and autistic preoccupations. This assessment will be completed by the child's parents and a classroom teacher, blind to intervention status, to reflect the opinion of more than one rater and allow for assessment of generalization across settings.

The SRS measures the severity of social impairment in natural settings, assessing social awareness, social information processing, reciprocal social communication, social anxiety/avoidance, and autistic preoccupations. This assessment will be completed by the child's parents and a classroom teacher, blind to intervention status, to reflect the opinion of more than one rater and allow for assessment of generalization across settings.

The SRS measures the severity of social impairment in natural settings, assessing social awareness, social information processing, reciprocal social communication, social anxiety/avoidance, and autistic preoccupations. This assessment will be completed by the child's parents and a classroom teacher, blind to intervention status, to reflect the opinion of more than one rater and allow for assessment of generalization across settings.

These stories assess the ability to interpret nonliteral statements. Stories requiring the interpretation of a speaker's communicative intent will be read to participants. Questions probe whether the child understands that (a) a nonliteral statement has been made and (b) the intent behind the statement (i.e., was the speaker was lying, being sarcastic, joking?)

These stories assess the ability to interpret nonliteral statements. Stories requiring the interpretation of a speaker's communicative intent will be read to participants. Questions probe whether the child understands that (a) a nonliteral statement has been made and (b) the intent behind the statement (i.e., was the speaker was lying, being sarcastic, joking?)

These stories assess the ability to interpret nonliteral statements. Stories requiring the interpretation of a speaker's communicative intent will be read to participants. Questions probe whether the child understands that (a) a nonliteral statement has been made and (b) the intent behind the statement (i.e., was the speaker was lying, being sarcastic, joking?)

The Vineland II measures personal and social skills needed for everyday living. The Survey Form will be administered to the child's parents in a semi-structured interview format and the Teacher Checklist will be completed by a teacher blind to intervention status.

The Vineland II measures personal and social skills needed for everyday living. The Survey Form will be administered to the child's parents in a semi-structured interview format and the Teacher Checklist will be completed by a teacher blind to intervention status.

Structured direct observation procedures by blinded observers will be used to evaluate the following target behaviors: instrumental initiations, social initiations, response to initiations, and nonverbal behaviors. Direct observations will also be conducted during unstructured free-play sessions at baseline, mid-point, and endpoint.

An analogue play group will be used to evaluate generalization of treatment effects to unaffected, unfamiliar peers. The play group will consist of 4 children: 2 TD peers and 2 children with ASD (1 enrolled in CBT, 1 enrolled in social play). The analogue play session will consist of a 20-minute videotaped free-play period in which children are provided with cooperative play toys (e.g., make-believe, construction, and board games).

An analogue play group will be used to evaluate generalization of treatment effects to unaffected, unfamiliar peers. The play group will consist of 4 children: 2 TD peers and 2 children with ASD (1 enrolled in CBT, 1 enrolled in social play). The analogue play session will consist of a 20-minute videotaped free-play period in which children are provided with cooperative play toys (e.g., make-believe, construction, and board games).