SKOLKONTAKT - Social Skills Training in a School Setting

So far, research has failed to consider the effectiveness of social skills training in school settings, and has instead focused on clinical or laboratory settings. This approach presents an interesting paradox given that the primary goal of social skills training is to affect change in the child's behavior in everyday life including school. Research undertaken in authentic everyday environments is not only more likely to result in real world outcomes for children and adolescents with ASD and ADHD, but greater utility in guiding models of service delivery. The objective of the current line of research is to adapt and evaluate methods originally designed to support children and adolescents with ASD and ADHD in clinical settings ("KONTAKT"), to be feasible and effective in school settings, that can be conducted by school personnel, and are are applicable to children with autistic and inattentive, hyperactive-impulsive disorders, as well as other less defined special social needs ("SKOLKONTAKT").

Inclusion criteria

• Formally diagnosed autism spectrum disorder
• Formally diagnosed attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
• Teacher-reported subclinical social-communication special needs

Exclusion criteria

• Severe psychiatric comorbidity that challenges administration of the group-intervention, including but not limited to severe oppositional defiant disorder
• Severe psychiatric comorbidity that makes the participant to vulnerable to participate in the group-intervention, including but not limited to suicidality, severe depression