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The Association Between Parent Engagement and Child Outcomes in Social Skills Training Programs: Discovering the Secret Agent Society in Partnership

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 March 2020

Debra Costley Open the ORCID record for Debra Costley [Opens in a new window] ,
Susanna Baldwin ,
Trevor Clark ,
Patricia Howlin ,
John R. Taffe ,
Renae Beaumont ,
Kylie M. Gray ,
Stewart L. Einfeld ,
Jennifer Smith-Merry  and
Jacqueline Roberts
...Show all authors
Debra Costley*
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham, UK Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect), Australia
Susanna Baldwin
Affiliation:
Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect), Australia
Trevor Clark
Affiliation:
Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect), Australia
Patricia Howlin
Affiliation:
The University of Sydney, Australia
John R. Taffe
Affiliation:
Monash University, Australia
Renae Beaumont
Affiliation:
New York Presbyterian Hospital, USA
Kylie M. Gray
Affiliation:
Monash University, Australia
Stewart L. Einfeld
Affiliation:
The University of Sydney, Australia
Jennifer Smith-Merry
Affiliation:
The University of Sydney, Australia
Jacqueline Roberts
Affiliation:
Griffith University, Australia
Kate Sofronoff
Affiliation:
The University of Queensland, Australia
*
*Corresponding author. Email: debra.costley@nottingham.ac.uk
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Abstract

Previous research in clinical, community, and school settings has demonstrated positive outcomes for the Secret Agent Society (SAS) social skills training program. This is designed to help children on the autism spectrum become more aware of emotions in themselves and others and to ‘problem-solve’ complex social scenarios. Parents play a key role in the implementation of the SAS program, attending information and support sessions with other parents and providing supervision, rewards, and feedback as their children complete weekly ‘home mission’ assignments. Drawing on data from a school-based evaluation of the SAS program, we examined whether parents’ engagement with these elements of the intervention was linked to the quality of their children’s participation and performance. Sixty-eight 8–14-year-olds (M age = 10.7) with a diagnosis of autism participated in the program. The findings indicated that ratings of parental engagement were positively correlated with children’s competence in completing home missions and with the quality of their contribution during group teaching sessions. However, there was a less consistent relationship between parental engagement and measures of children’s social and emotional skill gains over the course of the program.

Keywords

autism spectrum disordersocial skillsparental engagementcollaborationschool programs
Type
Original Articles
Information
Australasian Journal of Special and Inclusive Education , Volume 44 , Issue 1 , July 2020 , pp. 46 - 59
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020

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Footnotes

†

This manuscript was accepted under the Editorship of Umesh Sharma.

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