Near-Peer Facilitation of a Soft Skills Program for Young Adults With Autism.

Autor:	Connor A; Annemarie Connor, PhD, OTR/L, is Associate Professor and Director of the Community Autism Network, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers; aconnor@fgcu.edu., Fabrizi SE; Sarah E. Fabrizi, PhD, OTR/L, is Associate Professor and Interim Program Director, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers., Nasamran A; Amy Nasamran, PhD, is Fellow, Center for Research in Autism, Intellectual, and other Neurodevelopmental Disabilities, Michigan State University, East Lansing., Sung C; Connie Sung, PhD, CRC, LPC, is Associate Professor, Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology & Special Education, Michigan State University, East Lansing.
Jazyk:	angličtina
Zdroj:	The American journal of occupational therapy : official publication of the American Occupational Therapy Association [Am J Occup Ther] 2022 Jul 01; Vol. 76 (4).
DOI:	10.5014/ajot.2022.048207
Abstrakt:	Importance: Young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience poor employment outcomes. Teaching soft skills and using peer-based interventions improve outcomes for people with ASD. Objective: To evaluate the preliminary efficacy of a soft skills intervention and the feasibility of delivery to a group of young adults with ASD by near-peer occupational therapy master's-level students. Design: Pretest-posttest single-group design. Setting: College campus. Participants: Convenience sample of 14 young adults (M age = 21.57 yr) with ASD. Intervention: The Assistive Soft Skills and Employment Training (ASSET) program is a 12-session, manualized, soft skills group intervention previously validated with the ASD population. Topics include communication, attitude and enthusiasm, teamwork, networking, professionalism, and stress management. Outcomes and Measures: Social functioning, self-efficacy, and adaptive behavior were measured preintervention and immediately postintervention using standardized self-report rating scales. Participant satisfaction and experience were assessed using program-specific measures. Results: Participants made statistically significant improvements, with medium to large effect sizes in social functioning, self-efficacy, and adaptive behavior. They reported high levels of satisfaction and a positive experience with the program content and delivery. Conclusions and Relevance: This study provides evidence of participant satisfaction and perceived soft skills improvement and confidence, in addition to the preliminary efficacy of master's-level students as near-peer facilitators of the ASSET program with an ASD population. What This Article Adds: The results suggest that trained and supervised master's-level students can effectively deliver a manualized intervention as near-peer facilitators, elicit positive feedback and high levels of participant satisfaction, and replicate and extend previously reported participant gains. (Copyright © 2022 by the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.)
Databáze:	MEDLINE
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