The impact of Kate Ripley program on amplification social skills and sexual knowledge of boys with high-functioning autism in puberty

Puberty is one of the most important stages in life that a person faces with various physical and mental changes and requires training. This issue is especially important for adolescents with high–functioning autism (HFA) disorder. Amplification social skills and enhancing sexual knowledge for this group of teens will have an important role in acceptance by others and reducing the sexual abuse of these teenagers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of Kate Ripley program on increasing social skills and sexual knowledge in boy teens with High–functioning Autism (HFA) disorder. 

The present study was a single case study of type A–B–A. The statistical population included all adolescents with HFA in Yazd city (Center of Iran) and the subjects of this study were three 13–year–old boys with HFA disorder that selected by purposive sampling method. The social skills improvement system (SSIS) were used to assess social skills and in order to study sexual knowledge a questionnaire that was designed by the researchers was applied. The SSIS questionnaire prepared by Gersham and Elliot (2008) and contains 79 questions, with answers "never, rarely, often, and always", which are graded in the order of 0,1,2,3. The questionnaire consists of two sections of social skills and behavioral problems. A sexual knowledge questionnaire has 39 questions that includes five sub–scales (knowledge of physiology, sexual issues, pregnancy physiology, sexually transmitted diseases and gender identity). Answers to the questions are in the form of three options: "correct", "false" and "I do not know" and each correct answer scored one. Concerning the reliability of the questionnaires in relation to the SSIS questionnaire, the Cronbach alpha was 0.83 and the correlation coefficient in the test–retest was 0.89. In relation to the Sexual Knowledge Questionnaire, the correlation coefficient in the test–retest was 0.91 and the internal consistency was 0.82 using the Kuder–Richardson method. Findings of the research were analyzed through based on visual analysis and descriptive statistics. A training program by Kate Ripley in 2014 on adolescents with HFA disorder has been developed. The program consists of two parts and 30 sessions and topics. After translating the program and verifying its content by five experts, the program was used.

Ripley's Kate program has been effective on improved social skills with PND 83.34 for the first and third subjects and 66.66 for the second subject and increase sexual knowledge with a PND of 1.0 for the first subject and 83.34 for the second and third subjects and in relation to all three subjects, the scores in the post–intervention phase are upward as before the intervention. In relation to social skills, the scores of three subjects before intervention to after the interventions were equal to the first one was 62 to 87, the second one was 56 and 71, and the third was 63 to 87. In relation to sexual knowledge, the scores of subjects before intervention to after the intervention are equal to the first subject, 6 to 17, the second subject 7 to 21, and the third subject 2 to 11.

Kate Ripley's program, with structured content in the intervention program, could play an effective role in increasing the social skills and sexual knowledge of adolescents with HFA disorder and reducing their problems and further research on adolescents with autism disorder is essential.