Jornal de Ensaios Clínicos
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Effects of Peer-mediated Intervention on Social Skills for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Hospital Setting: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Beihua Zhang, Huimin Jin, Lixi Chua*, Shan Liang, Jingze Chen, Lin Chen, Weimin Chen, Shunshun Tu, Linyan Hu

Background: Peer-mediated Intervention (PMI) is a treatment approach that engages typically developing peers to teach children with autism social skills and increase their social interactions. However, lack of clinical trials explored
the outcome following PMI.
Objectives: The study was to investigate the effectiveness of PMI on social skills for children with ASD and analyze the specific changes in social skills. Methods: Sample sizes were calculated based on data from previous similar studies. A total of 64 children aged 4-12
years with ASD were randomly allocated to treatment group (n=32, including mild to moderate level n=20, severe level n=12) or control group (n=32, including mild to moderate level n=19, severe level n=13) participated in a 2-month, 20-24-session intervention. 16 typically developing children were chosen and took part in the treatment group. Assessments were completed before and after interventions and included the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) and the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS). Results: Following a 2-month intervention program, there are statistically significant differences between groups
(SRS; p<.05, CARS; p<.05), scores on mild to moderate level (SRS; p=.013, CARS; p=.041), severe level (SRS; p=.028 CARS; p=.005), significant differences were found in the mild to moderate autism among groups. Results also showed social cognition (p=.003), communication (p=.001), motivation (p=.020) and autistic mannerisms (p=.001) had a different enhanced.
Conclusion: PMI benefits children with autism on social skills and is effective for both mild to moderate and severe level autism