View clinical trials related to Social Skills.
Filter by:Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAI) can increase social behavior in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), although the mechanism by which this occurs remains elusive. The central goal of this project is to identify the mechanisms involved in the social-enhancing effect of dogs on children with ASD. The investigators will incorporate therapy dogs into an established evidence-based, group social skills instruction program for children with ASD, using a controlled experimental design with between- and within- subject comparisons and physiological and behavioral outcome measures. The investigators predict therapy dogs to have a specific and measurable effect on children's social behavior and that this effect is gained through identifiable mechanisms. Specifically, the investigators hypothesize that (1) an integration of therapy dogs into group social skills instruction will result in reduced stress and improved social behavior compare to traditional group instruction; (2) repeated exposure to the therapy dog across sessions will increase a child's preference for spending time with the dog and will increase the social-enhancing effects of the dog; and (3) that the therapists will experience less stress, engage in more social and affiliative behavior towards the children, and deliver higher quality instruction during sessions that include dogs. The investigators will enroll 72 children with ASD into group social skills instruction classes taught by 6 therapists. Each child will experience a 10-week, 8-student class in which either (a) the first 5 weeks will involve a therapy dog, (b) the last 5 weeks will involve the therapy dog, or (c) the class will not involve a therapy dog. The therapists will teach the courses repeatedly across the three cycles of the program with different children, rotating through each condition. Social behavior, stress behavior, heart rate, electrodermal activity, and salivary cortisol concentrations of children and therapists will be assessed and compared across conditions. The direction of the children's social behavior towards the dog and peers and the changes in quality of instruction of therapists during dog sessions compared to no-dog sessions will also be assessed. The outcomes of this research will lead to significant enhancements in current interventions for individuals with ASD.
Childhood adversity leads to social difficulties, chronic illness, and early mortality for many, but not all adults: Some are resilient. The investigators will test whether an on-line program focused on enhancing social relationships for people in mid-life can increase the odds that those with a history of a troubled childhood will not suffer a greater loss in mental and physical health than those without those histories. The investigators findings will bring the field significantly closer to the day when low cost interventions can be offered that work to strengthen the capacities of people to overcome the challenges that arise from adverse treatment early in life.
The overall purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the introduction of a shelter cat into the family of a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder on the social skills and anxiety of the child, and to examine stress in the cat.
There has been substantial progress in developing evidence-based prevention programs (EBPPs) for preventing risky behaviors and promoting positive outcomes for youth. Unfortunately, their adoption, quality implementation, long-term sustainability, and scalability in real world service settings, continues to lag far behind resulting in an inability to achieve the intended broad scale public impact. This SBIR Phase II project will build on the findings and feedback gathered from stakeholders in the Phase I project to fully develop and test the Impact implementation support system. Impact will provide an easy to use, cost- and time-efficient technology platform that is capable of (a) gathering relevant process and outcomes data in a feasible way within real-world service settings; (b) producing real-time analytics (e.g., graphical displays) and meaningful reports at the provider, service setting, and broader levels (e.g., state-wide); and (c) linking data analytics to continuous quality improvement (CQI) feedback to help providers achieve best practices and targeted youth outcomes.
The purpose of this randomized controlled trial is to evaluate an intervention, Supporting Survivors and Self: An Intervention for Social Supports of Survivors of Partner Abuse and Sexual Aggression (SSS). SSS trains potential recipients of IPV or SA disclosure on the best methods of responding to a victim's disclosure. Consenting college students will be randomized into the SSS intervention or a wait-list control condition. Evaluation data will be multi-informant (i.e., data from both informal supports and victims) and multi-method (i.e., qualitative and quantitative). The investigators hypothesize that individuals receiving the SSS intervention, compared to individuals in the wait-list control condition, will provide less negative and more positive social reactions to victims' disclosure.
Early adolescence marks a significant development in teens' social abilities, shifting from play to conversation-based activities, and having stronger and more intimate friendships. Parents contribute to this shift by practicing reciprocal social interaction with their teens. For teens with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) this shift in their peers' social abilities extends their characteristic social deficits even further. Social skills deficits in individuals with ASD are associated with poor adaptive functioning and increased psychopathology. Parents play a pivotal role in caring for and tutoring their children with ASD into adulthood. However, the effect parent-teen reciprocity has on the social skills of adolescents with ASD has not been tested. Furthermore, whereas parent-child reciprocity predicted intervention outcome in young children with ASD, no study has examined this effect in teens with ASD. The proposed study aims to test these questions using the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS), an evidence-based parent-assisted social skills training program for teens with ASD.
The purpose of this project is to evaluate an interactive training program for military-connected caregivers (MCCs) of wounded warriors. The program leverages existing resources and incorporates evidence-based training and peer-based support networks to enhance continuity of care. The program consists of an educational Toolkit (workbook) and an avatar training interaction where an MCC can practice skills learned from the toolkit training with the avatar (how to navigate difficult conversations). This is an educational training evaluation to determine whether or not avatar interaction can effectively improve health outcomes in MCCs.
Metacognition is the ability to introspect and report one's own mental states, or in other words to know how much one knows. It allows us to form a sense of confidence about decisions one makes in daily life, so one can commit to one option if our confidence is high, or seek for more evidence before commitment if our confidence is low. Although this function is crucial to behave adequately in a complex environment, confidence judgments are not always optimal. Notably, individuals with schizophrenia are prone to overconfidence in errors and underconfidence in correct answers. In schizophrenia, confidence is less correlated with performance compared to controls. These aspects are held to be at the origin of delusions, disorganization, poor insight into illness and into cognitive deficit and poor social functioning. Our study aims at identifying the cognitive and neural processes involved in metacognitive deficits in schizophrenia. Participants will perform metacognitive judgments on a low-level perceptual task (visual motion discrimination). Participants will do the first-order perceptual task by clicking on the correct answer with a mouse. During the first order task completion, the investigators will record several behavioral, physiological and neural variables. Then, participants will perform the metacognitive task with a visual analog scale. The study will address four research questions: - Q1: is schizophrenia associated with a decrease in metacognitive efficiency? Is the metacognitive deficit due to under- or over-confidence? - Q2: is the metacognitive impairment reflected at a decisional level as measured by behavioral variables (mouse tracking and reaction times)? - Q3: which physiological markers (EEG, skin conductance, heart rate) are predictors of metacognitive efficiency in individuals with schizophrenia and healthy controls? - Q4: which clinical symptoms correlate with metacognitive deficits? The investigators make several hypotheses related to the previous research questions: - Q1: the investigators expect metacognitive deficits in schizophrenia, based on results from several studies using both qualitative and quantitative measures. The investigators will rule out that quantitative deficits are not confounded with impairments in type 1 performance, with a generalized cognitive deficit in schizophrenia (lower premorbid and current Intelligence Quotient (IQ), and deficits in executive functioning and particularly in planning and working memory abilities), with depression or with statistical flaws during analysis of confidence. - Q2: the investigators expect behavioral cues (mouse tracking and reaction times) to be less correlated with confidence in patients vs. controls. The investigators thus make the hypothesis that the metacognitive deficit in schizophrenia may stem from an inability to integrate pre-decisional cues while performing an explicit metacognitive judgment. - Q3: the investigators expect physiological cues (EEG with Error-Related Negativity, Lateralized Readiness Potential and alpha suppression, and arousal of the autonomic nervous system with skin conductance and heart rate ) to be less correlated with confidence in patients vs. controls. - Q4: based on previous findings, the investigators expect that several clinical dimensions of schizophrenia may correlate with metacognitive performance. The metacognitive deficit would be greater for patients with high levels of positive and disorganized symptoms, and greater for patients with low levels of clinical and cognitive insight, and low levels of social functioning.
The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of social skills training on adolescents physical activity levels. For one week at the beginning and end of the study teens will wear a BioTrainer to measure their activity levels and also wear a pager to communicate the types of activities they are doing throughout the day. For 8 weeks participants will be randomized into one of two groups, a social skills training group or a physical activity group. The investigators predict that both groups will experience an increase in physical activity and social involvement (decrease time spent alone).