Application of Latent Class Analysis to Identify Subgroups of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders who Benefit from Social Skills Training.
Vera Dekker, Maaike H Nauta, Marieke E Timmerman and 3 others
PMID 32892235WHAT IT FOUND
Parent-reported difficulty interacting predicted which children with autism improved in social skills training.
Those with low or average difficulty improved significantly. Those with high difficulty did not, regardless of their starting skill level. Parent and teacher involvement helped the most impaired group.
Key findings
01Subgroups with lower perceived difficulty of social skills showed significant improvement, while those with higher difficulty did not.
02Children with low starting skills and high perceived difficulty benefited more from training that included parent and teacher involvement.
03Improvement was not related to the child's actual level of social skills at the start, but to how difficult parents reported interactions were for the child.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample was relatively small and consisted only of high-functioning children, mostly with PDD-NOS diagnoses, limiting generalizability to lower-functioning or strictly autistic children. All outcome measures were parent-reported, and parents were not blind to the treatment condition after the start, which may introduce bias. The study did not include objective measures or independent raters. The training duration and intensity were fixed, so the study could not assess if more intensive or longer training would help non-responders. Medication status was not recorded, so its potential effect on outcomes is unknown.
Declared interests
The study was funded by ZonMw and the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG).
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that children with lower observed social skills at the start will benefit less from training. The study found that perceived difficulty, not skill level, was the key predictor of response. Children with low skills but low perceived difficulty improved just as much as those with higher skills.