Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic quarantine guidelines made finding quality telehealth services for autistic individuals a vital pursuit. Before the worldwide shift to widespread adoption of telehealth services, however, rural and underserved areas were already using telehealth options to access services, but not yet in the realm of social skills interventions because of the preference for in-person groups and lack of data regarding effectiveness of social skills in a telehealth environment. This study compared effectiveness of an adaptation of Laugeson and Frankel's Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS) social skills curriculum for adolescents in a live synchronous online environment with the traditional in-person program delivery. Participants were divided into two groups by method of intervention delivery. Before and after the intervention was delivered to all participants, both groups engaged in typical social activities in naturalistic activities outside of the interventions setting to measure generalization of social reciprocity skills. These activities were videorecorded for later coding. The coding system measured both quality and frequency of social interactions. The novel coding system measures social engagement, reciprocal interactions, and how often each behavior occurs. Analysis showed some effects of time, and some differences between groups at baseline, but no significant differences in social interaction outcomes in time by group interaction. This preliminary evidence suggests that online, live, synchronous delivery of social skills group intervention may be an equivalent option for families who cannot access in-person groups.
Degree
EdS
College and Department
David O. McKay School of Education; Counseling Psychology and Special Education
Rights
https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Masse, Miiko Lyne, "Online vs. In-Person Delivery of Social Skills Group Intervention for Autistic Adolescents: Comparison of Social Behavior Outcomes" (2024). Theses and Dissertations. 10702.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/10702
Date Submitted
2024-03-21
Document Type
Thesis
Handle
http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd13538
Keywords
autism, online synchronous, social skills training, PEERS
Language
english
