Project Description:
This project addresses the importance of identifying empirically supported interventions to improve core areas affected by ASD (social competence) and quality of life, which is in line with both the KCART mission as well as the mission of the Lifespan Institute. The purpose of this Girls Night Out (GNO) study is to evaluate an intervention aimed at improving social communication, specifically conversational skills, and self-care skills in an understudied population: adolescent girls with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Because this in an intervention ?package,? it is difficult to identify specific components that contribute to improvements in social skills. Thus, for this pilot study, we have targeted a few specific social conversation skills as primary outcome variables and will collect ancillary data on additional global outcomes. A multiple baseline, single-subject design (across behaviors) will be utilized to evaluate the impact of GNO curriculum on specific conversational skills. The multiple baseline design (MBD) allows for examination of specific skills at particular points in which they are targeted in the GNO curriculum. Approximately four adolescent girls with ASD will be included in this study. The intervention program will occur over the course of 15 weeks with three ?get to know you sessions? for baseline data followed by 12 intervention sessions targeting specific skills. Each GNO session follows a similar outline with a new theme or activity each session. Four sessions will be dedicated to each skill with the first session used to introduce the skill and three subsequent sessions to reinforce the skill. This cycle of strategies will be repeated for each of the three skills across the twelve sessions. The MBD across behaviors (specific social conversation skills) allows for application of intervention to specific targeted skills while observing the other targeted skills as (untreated) baselines, hoping for little or no change in these behaviors until the intervention has been applied to that particular behavior. This design was selected as a best fit because the intervention is delivered to all participants at the same time (group) and statistical analyses would not be appropriate with such a small sample size. It is expected that girls with ASD, who complete the GNO program, will improve in specific conversational social skills targeted during GNO sessions, experience the greatest increase in conversational skills following sessions in which the specific skill was targeted, and increase in general social skills.
The purpose of this Girls Night Out (GNO) study is to evaluate an intervention aimed at improving social communication, specifically conversational skills, and self-care skills in an understudied population: adolescent girls with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The program targets areas often impaired in individuals with ASD: social skills related to conversations and self-care, related to appearance and hygiene
