A Group-Administered social Skills Training for 8- to 12- Year-Old, high-Functioning Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders: An Evaluation of its Effectiveness in a Naturalistic Outpatient Treatment Setting

Deckers and colleagues ran a social-skills group for 8- to 12-year-old children with high-functioning autism. The kids met once a week for 12 weeks in a regular outpatient clinic.

Parents and teachers filled out rating scales before, after, and three months later. A wait-list group served as the comparison.

Children who got the group training earned higher parent and teacher social-skills scores than the wait-list kids. The gains held up three months later.

Loneliness scores did not budge for either group.

U et al. (2018) used the same outpatient setting but doubled the sessions to 24 weeks. Their larger, randomized trial found even bigger parent-rated gains, suggesting longer groups pack more punch.

Chester et al. (2019) added free-play to the same 8-week program and still saw medium social gains in an RCT. The play twist did not beat the original format, but it shows the core ingredients travel.

Koenig et al. (2010) looked mixed on paper: parents saw gains, yet a second scale stayed flat. Deckers et al. also saw flat loneliness, but their overall summary stayed positive because parent and teacher scales both moved.

You can run an effective social-skills group in the clinic you already use. Twelve weekly sessions beat wait-list, and 24 weeks look even better. Track both parent and teacher views; they may move while the child still reports feeling lonely. If a family needs faster service, start with 12 weeks and plan a booster later.