School programs for autistic kids found lacking

By Amy Norton

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - School programs intended to improve autistic children's social skills are not delivering results in many cases, a new study suggests.

Autism is a developmental brain disorder that, to varying degrees, impairs a child's ability to communicate, which includes problems with expressing themselves and with interpreting other people's words or body language.

As a result, children with autism have difficulty interacting with others and forming relationships. Interventions aimed at building social skills are considered a vital part of autism therapy.

In a new analysis of 55 previously published studies, however, researchers found that the social-skills programs offered in schools appear only "minimally effective." In general, the programs created little change in the behaviors they hoped to improve.

However, the study authors caution that this does not mean social-skills programs should be abandoned.

"On the contrary, the results indicate that we need to deliver more effective social-skills programming," said lead study author Dr. Scott Bellini, assistant director of Indiana University's Indiana Resource Center for Autism in Bloomington.

The study found, among other things, that most of the programs offered far fewer than the 30-plus hours of instruction that's generally recommended. Furthermore, while the programs had lukewarm results on average, those that were conducted in the classroom or in school playgrounds were more effective than programs that pulled autistic children out of their usual classroom.

These results point to ways to improve existing social-skills programs, according to Bellini and his colleagues.

"We should not stop teaching social skills," Bellini told Reuters Health. "We need to do a better job teaching social skills."

The findings, published in the Journal of Remedial and Special Education, come from a review of studies of school-based social-skills education for children with autism spectrum disorders -- a group of conditions that includes autism and milder, related impairments like Asperger syndrome.

Few of the 55 studies examined how well the programs were implemented. Therefore, it's impossible to tell whether the disappointing results reflect problems with the programs themselves or with their execution, the researchers say.

This, according to Bellini, touches on a broader issue: Few school teachers have formal training in teaching social skills, but they're given the job of implementing social-skills programs for students with autism spectrum disorders.

School administrators should do more to help them, according to Bellini. "School districts," he said, "should provide professional development opportunities to educators working with students on the autism spectrum."

SOURCE: Journal of Remedial and Special Education, May/June 2007.