A Case Series of Social Thinking Training of Mainstreamed Secondary School Students with High-Functioning Autism

Hong Kong Journal of Mental Health (2009, 35, 10-17)
© The Mental Health Association of Hong Kong 2009

"...The results from the four-case series demonstrate that the program is effective in promoting the social communication skills of teenagers with high-functioning autism... To further investigate the effectiveness of the program in the local setting, 44 teenagers from 14 mainstreamed secondary schools were recruited into a follow-up program.

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

Brief Report: Measuring the Effectiveness of Teaching Social Thinking to Children with Asperger Syndrome (AS) and High Functioning Autism (HFA)

Pamela J. Crooke, Ryan E. Hendrix, Janine Y. Rachman

Abstract: This is the first report from a large multiple baseline single-subject design study of children with Aut­ism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). This brief report examines effectiveness of teaching a social cognitive (Social Thinking) approach to six males with Asperger syndrome (AS) or High Functioning Autism (HFA). Data included are restricted to pre-post-treatment comparisons of verbal and non-verbal social behaviors. Structured treatment and semi-structured generalization sessions occurred over eight weeks. Results indicated significant changes from pre- to post- measures on both verbal/nonverbal ‘‘expected'' and ‘‘unexpected'' behaviors, significant increases in the subcat­egories of ‘‘expected verbal'', ‘‘listening/thinking with eyes'', and ‘‘initiations'', and robust decreases in the subcategories of ‘‘unexpected-verbal'' and ‘‘unexpected-nonverbal''. Impor­tance of social cognitive approaches for children AS and HFA is discussed.

Department of Speech-Language-Hearing: Science and Disorders, May 2004

This was a study designed to determine if there was a difference in performance on a social communication assessment procedure, the Double Interview Task, (Winner, 2002) in children with Asperger Syndrome and children of the same age who were developing typically. There were 20 participants in this study, 10 with Asperger Syndrome and 10 developing typically. A difference in performance between groups was found. Children with Asperger Syndrome used more utterances but asked fewer questions than participants developing typically. Overall, children with Asperger Syndrome made more errors in each of the error categories including: having difficulty formulating questions, asking shallow questions, diverting the topic back to themselves or their experiences, repeating a question that the researcher asked them, making revisions including false-starts and self-interruptions, and needing to be redirected back to the task of asking questions.

A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of Special Education California State University, Los Angeles

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts

Acknowledgements

Special thanks goes to Dr. Jennifer Symon for assisting in picking up the pieces; Dr. Randy Campbell for lifting me up and kicking me out; and Dr. Tom Willis for providing the laboratory in which to explore my ideas. Thanks to all three for their patience and guidance during this arduous thesis process. Particular thanks goes to Dr. Christine Givner, who originally set the course and helped chart the direction of my thinking. Dr. Givner mentored me through many years of turmoil and development, and her ceaseless encouragement was crucial every step of the way.