Measuring Changes in Social Skills Throughout an Intervention Program for Children with ASD, Contributions from Polar Coordinate Analysis.
Carlota Alcover, M Ángeles Mairena, Jairo Rodríguez-Medina and 5 others
PMID 35279764WHAT IT FOUND
Children with autism showed fewer total social behaviors after a ten-session group program, but the quality of interactions improved.
High-level interactions and positive nonverbal cues increased, while low-level functional requests decreased. The study lacked a control group, so changes cannot be definitively attributed to the intervention.
Key findings
01The total number of observed social behaviors decreased from the second to the tenth session, but the proportion of high-level positive social interactions increased.
02Participants with higher verbal IQ initiated more complex social interactions involving eye contact and smiles, whereas those with lower verbal IQ showed different, less complex patterns of response activation.
03Low-level interactions, such as functional requests for objects or turns, inhibited high-level social responses in many participants across both sessions.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
There was no control group, so natural development or other factors cannot be ruled out as causes for the observed changes. The sample size was small, with only 21 children coded and 20 included in the analysis. Observers were not blind to the study goals, which may have introduced bias in coding. The study only measured 14 minutes of free play at two time points, missing the evolution of behavior throughout the intervention. The analysis did not capture dyadic sequences, meaning it cannot show how one child's behavior directly triggered another's response.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume the intervention caused the improvement. The study had no control group, and the total number of social behaviors actually decreased. The finding is that the mix of behaviors changed, not that the children became more social overall.