Abstract
There is a dearth of research that focuses on social intervention efforts for adults on the autism spectrum with intellectual disability and limited conversational language. Using a multiple baseline experimental design, this pilot investigation of the Socialization Knowledge for Individuals with Limited Language (SKILL) program evaluated a novel peer-facilitated group program specifically designed to target social interaction skills for this population. Findings from five pilot participants yielded evidence of social improvements across specific verbal skills (on-topic conversational contributions and responses) and nonverbal behaviors (eye-contact, active listening), as evidenced by coded social conversation probes and parent-report measures. These findings demonstrate the promise of a socialization intervention for a population that has historically been neglected in the social intervention research literature.
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Notes
This manuscript uses both Identity-first and Person-first language, consistent with practices among autistic-self advocates and community stakeholders (Kenny et al. 2016).
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge our dedicated team of behavior coders and peer facilitators who made this research possible. We are also grateful for the commitment and input from our participating families.
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University of California Santa Barbara, Academic Senate Grant (PI: Vernon).
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EF conceived of the study along with TV, facilitated its design and coordination, collected the data, performed the statistical analysis, interpreted the data, and drafted the manuscript. KD contributed to study design and coordination, data collection, and manuscript development. JL assisted with writing scripts perform reliability checks, creating variables for behaviorally-coded data, and analyzing the data. KH contributed to the development of behavior-coding schemes, developing a coding manual, and training new coders. HF assisted with the development of behavior-coding procedures, data interpretation, and the preparation of figures for the manuscript. AM participated in study design, coordination, and data collection. TV participated in the design and coordination of the study, collected data, assisted with interpretation of the data, and revised the manuscript critically. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Ferguson, E.F., Drapalik, K.N., Liang, J. et al. Social Interaction Skill Intervention for Autistic Adults with Intellectual Disability and Limited Language: A Pilot of the SKILL Program. J Autism Dev Disord 51, 1641–1657 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04659-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04659-1