Randomized Controlled Trial of Mind Reading and In Vivo Rehearsal for High-Functioning Children with ASD

Abstract

This randomized controlled trial evaluated the efficacy of a computer software (i.e., Mind Reading) and in vivo rehearsal treatment on the emotion decoding and encoding skills, autism symptoms, and social skills of 43 children, ages 7-12 years with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (HFASD). Children in treatment (n = 22) received the manualized protocol over 12 weeks. Primary analyses indicated significantly better posttest performance for the treatment group (compared to controls) on 3 of the 4 measures of emotion decoding and encoding and these were maintained at 5-week follow-up. Analyses of secondary measures favored the treatment group for 1 of the 2 measures; specifically, ASD symptoms were significantly lower at posttest and follow-up.

A systematic review of pragmatic language interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder

“…Of these 12 studies, nine assessed cognitive capacity for inclusion using a standardised assessment appropriate for the age of the included participants, and the remaining three utilised parent report as the children were too young to undertake formal IQ testing (i.e., under 6 years of age). Three studies required that participants demonstrate age appropriate expressive or receptive language prior to inclusion [38–40]. Treatment group sample sizes ranged from five to 59, with nine of the papers reporting calculations of power to determine an appropriate sample size.…”

“…Education of the parent was the focus of these approaches, with CMM being delivered by the therapist to both the child and parent in a one-on-one setting at home, and CEM delivered in a group setting with parents only. Additionally, Lopata, Thomeer [39] studied a treatment protocol which combines the intervention approaches reported on by Lopata, Thomeer [38] and Thomeer, Smith [40]. …”

RCT of mind reading as a component of a psychosocial treatment for high-functioning children with ASD

“…success (e.g., Barnhill, Cook, Tebbenkamp, & Myles, 2002;Lerner et al, 2011;Stichter et al, 2012) and the CBI MR has produced somewhat narrow ER gains that have not generalized to the children's social functioning (e.g., LaCava et al, 2007;LaCava et al, 2010). As a result, several authors have suggested that the efficacy of CBIs such as MR may be enhanced by providing additional instruction on how to respond after decoding an emotion, along with practice opportunities in real-life interactions (e.g., Ploog et al, 2013;Ramdoss et al, 2012;Thomeer et al, 2015). This study examined the efficacy of MR as a component of an intensive summer treatment, summerMAX, for children with HFASD.…”

“…It is comprised of 412 emotions, organized into 24 emotion groups and by 6 emotion levels. Consistent with Thomeer et al (2015), the current protocol targeted 98 of the "Top 100" emotions as they were identified as appropriate for the age range of this sample. Within MR, emotions are clustered into groups of approximately 10 each.…”

“…As noted, CBIs may be more effective when paired with other traditional instructional methods (Ploog et al, 2013). Besides potentially strengthening the ER component of summerMAX, integrating MR into the protocol addresses several points noted in the CBI research including the need for structured and repeated practice in naturalistic settings (Hopkins et al, 2011;Ploog et al, 2013;Ramdoss et al, 2012), as well as evaluation of MR as part of a comprehensive treatment (Thomeer et al, 2015). In addition, studies are needed that compare CBIs such as MR to other treatments and these should control critical variables such as the number of treatment hours and parent participation so that the effect of the ER component is isolated and assessed (Hopkins et al, 2011;Ploog et al, 2013).…”