Vijayakrishnan, Kamya
(2023)
Evidence-Based Social skills intervention for students with autism enrolled in cyber charter school.
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
Social skills are vital to everyday life; home being the first place to learn these skills. Lack of such skills is a characteristic of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) (Gray, 2004). This lack of social skills negatively impacts autistic children to excel in the school and community environment. They have a hard time maintaining social contact with peers and staying focused on task, which appears to be more challenging in virtual platform. Although, cyber school provides flexibility, it has certain disadvantages of not providing opportunities for students for more interaction apart from the regular chat features during synchronous classes in their curriculum. This study sought to explore student outcomes in social skills when students receive an evidence-based social skills intervention in a live synchronous virtual format targeted to improve social skills deficits. Post-intervention gains in students’ social skills were reported using the Social Responsiveness Scale, TASSK and the online delivery on social skills intervention was found to be a feasible and acceptable format as reported by the parents through the TARF surveys. The findings from students’ progress monitoring data fact-sheet show considerable increase in student participation in classrooms, improvement in students’ communication/interaction classrooms and better self-regulation skills compared to the baseline scores. Post-intervention gains in students’ social skills show that students may have benefited from the intervention irrespective of the mode of delivery. This study sought to examine the possibility of adapting one of the widely used social skills intervention in a cyber charter school setting. Online delivery of social skills may be a feasible option in the context of a pandemic situation like covid-19 where the possibility of meeting in groups are nearly impossible. Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of implementing social skills intervention virtually may help the school follow a social skills curriculum that best fits the needs of students.
Keywords: Autism, social skills intervention, virtual learning
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
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| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
7 July 2023 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
4 May 2023 |
| Approval Date: |
7 July 2023 |
| Submission Date: |
19 June 2023 |
| Access Restriction: |
1 year -- Restrict access to University of Pittsburgh for a period of 1 year. |
| Number of Pages: |
102 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
School of Education > Instruction and Learning |
| Degree: |
EdD - Doctor of Education |
| Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
Autism, social skills intervention, virtual learning |
| Date Deposited: |
07 Jul 2023 20:12 |
| Last Modified: |
07 Jul 2024 05:15 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/45006 |
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