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RCT of a Psychosocial Treatment for Children with High-Functioning ASD: Supplemental Analyses of Treatment Effects on Facial Emotion Encoding

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Abstract

This study evaluated the effect of a comprehensive psychosocial intervention on supplemental measures of facial emotion encoding for children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (HFASD) who were enrolled in prior randomized trials. A total of 60 children, ages 7 to 12 years were randomly assigned to treatment or wait-list control groups. Photographs of six posed facial expressions (happy, sad, angry, scared, surprised, and disgusted) taken at pretest and posttest were rated for encoding accuracy by naïve raters. Ratings consisted of a) the extent to which the facial expression reflected each of the six possible emotions (extent rating) and b) a selection of the one emotion the raters identified as being portrayed (forced-choice). Results indicated significantly better encoding of sad at posttest for the treatment group on the extent (d = .58) and forced-choice (d = .56) ratings. Between-groups differences in encoding of the other emotions at posttest were non-significant. Implications for intervention and future research are presented.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by a grant from the John R. Oishei Foundation. Findings and conclusions are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agency.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Autism Research, Canisius College, 2001 Main Street, Buffalo, NY, 14208, USA

    Jonathan D. Rodgers, Marcus L. Thomeer, Christopher Lopata, Christin A. McDonald & Alyssa A. Biscotto

  2. University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, 14260, USA

    Martin A. Volker, Gloria K. Lee & Rachael A. Smith

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  1. Jonathan D. Rodgers
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  2. Marcus L. Thomeer
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  3. Christopher Lopata
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  4. Martin A. Volker
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  5. Gloria K. Lee
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  6. Christin A. McDonald
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  7. Rachael A. Smith
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  8. Alyssa A. Biscotto
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Correspondence to Jonathan D. Rodgers.

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Rodgers, J.D., Thomeer, M.L., Lopata, C. et al. RCT of a Psychosocial Treatment for Children with High-Functioning ASD: Supplemental Analyses of Treatment Effects on Facial Emotion Encoding. J Dev Phys Disabil 27, 207–221 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-014-9409-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-014-9409-x

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