Abstract
AbstractPrevious research in clinical, community, and school settings has demonstrated positive outcomes for the Secret Agent Society (SAS) social skills training program. This is designed to help children on the autism spectrum become more aware of emotions in themselves and others and to ‘problem-solve’ complex social scenarios. Parents play a key role in the implementation of the SAS program, attending information and support sessions with other parents and providing supervision, rewards, and feedback as their children complete weekly ‘home mission’ assignments. Drawing on data from a school-based evaluation of the SAS program, we examined whether parents’ engagement with these elements of the intervention was linked to the quality of their children’s participation and performance. Sixty-eight 8–14-year-olds (M age = 10.7) with a diagnosis of autism participated in the program. The findings indicated that ratings of parental engagement were positively correlated with children’s competence in completing home missions and with the quality of their contribution during group teaching sessions. However, there was a less consistent relationship between parental engagement and measures of children’s social and emotional skill gains over the course of the program.
Highlights
Autism spectrum disorders are marked by difficulties with social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication, social cognition, empathy, and sharing of affective experiences (APA, 2013)
The findings indicated that ratings of parental engagement were positively correlated with children’s competence in completing home missions and with the quality of their contribution during group teaching sessions
This study examined qualitative feedback provided by parents, teachers and facilitators at the close of the Secret Agent Society (SAS) program, providing a preliminary account of factors that may influence parent engagement in the intervention
Summary
Autism spectrum disorders are marked by difficulties with social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication, social cognition, empathy, and sharing of affective experiences (APA, 2013). The SAS program (Author, 2010) is a multimedia cognitive, behavioural, emotional and social skills intervention designed to suit the specific needs of children on the autism spectrum aged 8 to 12 years who have intellectual abilities in the low average range or above. The main expectations on parents within the school delivery variant of the SAS small group program are to (i) attend four parent information sessions, (ii) oversee and assist their children to complete the weekly ‘home missions’ (including providing rewards for skill use), (iii) contribute to filling out a home–school diary to record and reward their child’s progress, and (iv) participate in booster phone calls at 3 and 6 months post-intervention. Parents are provided with recommendations on how to continue using and reviewing learned strategies once the formal program delivery has come to a close
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