Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
369928 Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders 2016 12 Pages PDF
Abstract

•MR yielded narrow emotion recognition gains as part of the summerMAX treatment.•Gains resulting from MR were evident on the proximal face-emotion measure only.•summerMAX without MR yielded significant gains for children with HFASD.

This randomized controlled trial evaluated the efficacy of mind reading as a component of a comprehensive psychosocial treatment for 36 high-functioning children, ages 7–12 years with ASD (HFASD). All participants received the comprehensive 5-week summer treatment (summerMAX), with half randomly assigned to also receive mind reading (emotion-recognition) computer instruction as part of the treatment (summerMAX + MR). Primary analyses of proximal measures indicated significantly better performance on face emotion-recognition testing for the summerMAX + MR group (vs. summerMAX alone), and significant gains in voice emotion-recognition child testing and parent- and clinician-rated emotion recognition skills for the overall group, but no between-groups differences. Secondary analyses of distal measures indicated significant improvements on broader emotion-recognition child testing and parent and clinician ratings of program-targeted social/social-communication skills, broad social skills, and ASD-related symptoms for the overall group (summerMAX + MR and summerMAX combined) and no significant differences between the conditions (summerMAX + MR vs. summerMAX). Results suggested that mind reading may result in significant but narrow gains when included as part of this intensive psychosocial treatment for children with HFASD.

Related Topics
Life Sciences Neuroscience Behavioral Neuroscience
Authors
, , , , ,