A Randomized Controlled Trial of an Inference Generation Strategy Intervention for Adults With High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder

    Authors

    K. A. Murza; C. Nye; J. B. Schwartz; B. J. Ehren;D. L. Hahs-Vaughn

    Comments

    Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Am. J. Speech-Lang. Pathol.

    Keywords

    autism; intervention; language; reading; pragmatics; adults; ASPERGER-SYNDROME; READING-COMPREHENSION; SOCIAL-PERCEPTION; YOUNG-ADULTS; CHILDREN; STUDENTS; DISABILITIES; ADOLESCENTS; SKILLS; MIND; Audiology & Speech-Language Pathology; Linguistics; Rehabilitation

    Abstract

    Purpose: The present intervention study investigated the efficacy of the ACT & Check Strategy intervention to improve inference generation when reading, metacognitive ability, general reading comprehension, and social inference ability in adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (HF-ASD). Method: Twenty-five adults with HF-ASD were randomly assigned to either a treatment or a control group. Treatment sessions were conducted in 1-hr sessions, twice a week, for a total of 6 weeks. Treatment focused on explicit instruction of components of inference generation, categories of inferences, and increasingly independent strategy use. Results: The treatment group demonstrated significantly superior performance on 1 of 2 measures of inference generation in reading and 1 measure of metacognitive ability compared with the control group. Significant differences between groups were not found on measures of reading comprehension or social inference ability. Conclusion: These findings suggest that the ACT & Check Strategy was effective in improving participants' ability to generate inferences in reading and certain metacognitive abilities, but the skills do not appear to generalize to other social communication contexts, such as social inference generation. This research provides a measure of support for explicitly teaching inference generation to address a reading inference deficit in adults with HF-ASD.

    Journal Title

    American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology

    Volume

    23

    Issue/Number

    3

    Publication Date

    1-1-2014

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    461

    Last Page

    473

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000345682300008

    ISSN

    1058-0360

    Share

    COinS