Examining the Effectiveness of Naturalistic Social Skills Training in Developing Social Skills and Theory of Mind in Preschoolers with ASD.
Grzegorz Szumski, Joanna Smogorzewska, Paweł Grygiel and 1 others
PMID 29159579WHAT IT FOUND
Play Time/Social Time helped preschoolers with ASD start and keep peer interactions, and both it and I Can Problem Solve reduced difficult social situations.
Neither clearly improved understanding others' minds.
Key findings
01PT/ST increased teacher-rated interactional skills faster than the control group (β STDY = 1.48, p < .01).
02Both PT/ST and ICPS decreased teacher-rated problematic social situations faster than control (PT/ST β STDY = -1.65, p < .001; ICPS β STDY = -1.18, p < .001).
03ICPS did not significantly improve theory of mind over control at p < .05 (β STDY = 0.94, p = .07).
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 small: 52 children were split into groups of 14, 12, and 26, and one power analysis refers to 51 children. The intervention groups had worse baseline ToPSS scores than the control group, so ToPSS change is not a clean comparison. Teachers who rated social skills knew the children's group, although they did not deliver the lessons. There was no formal follow-up, so it is unknown whether the gains lasted. Generalization outside the preschool setting was not measured. Language and communication skills were not assessed, although ICPS uses dialogue and language activities. ASD features were compared using only the AQ questionnaire, not ADOS-2 or ADI-R. The ICPS theory-of-mind result was marginal (p = .07), and the authors' simulation linked it to the small sample. Each program contained several components, so the contribution of any single component cannot be separated.
Declared interests
The paper reports Ministerstwo Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego as funder. It does not report other conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that ICPS improves theory of mind. The effect did not reach p < .05 (p = .07), and the study had no formal follow-up or generalization measurement.