A randomized controlled trial of the Chinese-Cantonese version of PEERS® for teens with ASD in Hong Kong

Abstract

PEERS® (Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills) is a parent-assisted social skills training program for adolescents with ASD. Prior studies on this intervention have shown its effectiveness in improving the social skills and knowledge of teens with ASD in North America and South Korea (Laugeson, Frankel, Gantman, Dillon, & Mogil, 2012; Yoo et al., 2014). The present study aimed to evaluate the treatment efficacy of a Chinese-Cantonese version of PEERS® for improving social skills among teens with ASD in Hong Kong through a randomized control trial. The English version of the PEERS® Treatment Manual (Laugeson & Frankel, 2010) was translated into Cantonese. Culturally-sensitive items were surveyed by over 200 S1-S4 students in 2 local secondary schools and subsequently reviewed by 20 local Cantonese-speaking certified PEERS® trainers for cultural adaptation. In the first phase of our study, we recruited 14 teenagers, aged 12-15, with diagnosis of ASD and verbal IQ ≥75, and they were randomly assigned to the treatment group or waitlist control group. The treatment group received 14 sessions of training conducted by certified PEERS® trainers once a week, on topics including conversational skills, choosing friends, use of humor, handling teasing and bullying, etc. Each session consisted of a target lesson, role-play demonstrations, behavioral rehearsal exercises, and homework assignment to facilitate skill generalization. Concurrent sessions for parents of the participants were held in separate rooms. Questionnaires reported by parents, teachers, peers and teens themselves, were delivered prior to and after the training program to evaluate treatment outcomes. Preliminary results based on ANCOVA indicated significant improvement in communication skills (F[1,9]=6.43, p=.03, η2=.42) and social knowledge (F[1,11]=6.65, p=.03, η2=.38), and significantly lower conflict with friends (F[1,11]=7.39, p=.02, η2=.40), among teens that received PEERS® training, as compared to their counterparts in the control group, after controlling for the baseline.