Social conversation skill improvements associated with the Social Tools And Rules for Teens program for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder: Results of a randomized controlled trial.
START gives teens with autism a proven 20-week recipe for asking more questions and smiling more during peer talks.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team ran a randomized controlled trial of the 20-week START program. Teens with autism were split into two groups. One group joined START right away. The other group waited and served as the control.
Trained staff taught conversation tools and rules. Each week teens practiced with peers. After the program, short talks were video-taped and coded for questions asked and happy faces shown.
What they found
START teens asked more questions during short peer talks. They also showed more positive facial expressions than the wait-list group.
The gains were clear enough to see on video. Simple counts proved the program moved real-life conversation behaviors.
How this fits with other research
W Vernon et al. (2018) tested the same START program one year earlier. That study looked at broad social functioning. The 2019 paper zooms in on tiny conversation moves like question rate and smiling. Together they show START helps both big-picture and moment-to-moment skills.
Saré et al. (2020) moved the idea into the workplace. Their JOBSS program gave adults with autism job-focused social training. Six months later 45% had paid jobs. START gives teens the peer-talk base; JOBSS shows the path can extend to adult employment.
Płatos et al. (2022) ran a large Polish trial of PEERS. Both PEERS and START use group behavioral skills training for autistic teens. PEERS added parent coaching and kept gains for six months. START keeps the peer focus and adds live coding of real chats. The two programs agree: structured groups work; the choice is who does the coaching.
Why it matters
You now have an RCT-backed teen program that lifts two concrete conversation skills: asking questions and showing positive faces. These micro-behaviors open doors to friendships and later job interviews. If you run social groups, weave in START-style question drills and smile practice. Ten minutes of peer role-play each week can give your clients the same measurable boost.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
There has been a significant increase in the development of interventions to improve the social competence and success of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. The current investigation used direct observation and coding of social conversations as a rigorous method to further assess the efficacy of the Social Tools And Rules for Teens socialization intervention for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder in the context of a randomized controlled trial. A total of 35 adolescents with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder were randomized to either a treatment or waitlist control group. The 20-week group intervention took place once a week for 90 min per session. Brief video-recorded conversations between participants and unfamiliar, untrained peers were recorded at pre- and post-time points and coded for selected social behaviors (i.e. questions asked, positive facial expressions, and mutual engagement). Results revealed a significant Group × Time treatment effect for both questions asked and positive facial expressions. The findings support that the Social Tools And Rules for Teens intervention can positively impact specific, observable social behaviors through systematic coding of live social conversations within the context of a randomized controlled trial. This investigation is one of the first randomized controlled trials of a group socialization intervention to use systematic coding of live social conversations to assess social competence improvements.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2019 · doi:10.1177/1362361318808781