Social skills interventions are particularly designed to increase pro-social interactions for individuals with autism spectrum disorders therefore they are critical. Unfortunately, the relative effectiveness of these interventions is not well understood.
This study was basically a literature review of the existing research that provided an in-depth analysis of the social skills interventions along with the factors that can have an impact on the effectiveness of the interventions. More than 250 single-case design studies in 113 articles were identified and fulfilled the inclusion criteria. They were reviewed and described in terms of participants, settings, arrangements, implementers, social partners, target behaviors, and treatment components. Differential success rates are reported in the study, given the variation in the study and participant characteristics such as implementers, treatment components, participant age, etc.
The study concluded through its findings that the environmental arrangement, social skills training, and prompting were highly successful, and peer training, priming, and video-based interventions were less successful. More evidence is needed, particularly research including older individuals and utilizing indigenous implementers and typical social partners.
Reference: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1088357616634024
