The Efficacy of a Social Skills Group Intervention for Improving Social Skill, Academic Competence, Behavior Problems in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

This study aims to evaluate the effect of group intervention treatment on the improvement of social skills, academic competence and the reduction of behavior problems in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. The study is based on the A-B-A single-subject design. Using the purposive sampling, three students were selected. Training sessions, which were based on Derosier social skills training program, consisted of ten lessons that were held for five months in twenty 40-minute sessions. Using the Social Skills Improvement System (SSIS), during and after each 3-training session, the evaluation was carried out. In order to track the training results, the questionnaire was filled out by the trainer one month later. According to the data visual analysis results, this program succeeded to improve the social skills and behavior problems in all of the three participants. Regarding the improvement of the academic competence, this program proved to be effective only for the first participant. According to the research findings, the nature of the group interventions, which creates more opportunities for interaction and an increase in the motivation for children to relate, not only leads to social skills and relation improvement, but also has a direct and positive impact on the behavior problems( including the reduction of bullying, internalizing and externalizing symptoms). Regarding the effect of this program on academic competence, further research is needed