***TASK*** the task is to summarize an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***INPUT*** the input is a biomedical literature 
    ***OUTPUT*** the output is the summary of an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***DOCUMENTATION*** 
    ***EXAMPLES*** 
    Input: This study reports results of a r and omized controlled trial aim ed at joint attention ( JA ) and symbolic play ( SP ) in preschool children with autism , with prediction to language outcome 12 months later . Participants were 58 children ( 46 boys ) with autism between 3 and 4 years of age . Children were r and omized to a JA intervention , an SP intervention , or control group . Interventions were conducted 30 min daily for 5 - 6 weeks . Assessment s of JA skills , SP skills , mother-child interactions , and language development were collected at 4 time points : pre- and postintervention and 6 and 12 months postintervention by independent testers . Results indicate that expressive language gains were greater for both treatment groups compared with the control group , and results could not be explained by differences in other interventions in which children participated . For children beginning treatment with the lowest language levels , the JA intervention improved language outcome significantly more than did the SP or control interventions . These findings suggest clinical ly significant benefits of actively treating JA and SP skills in young children with autism A r and omized control trial comparing two social-communication interventions in young children with autism examined far-transfer of the use of picture exchange to communicate .  Thirty-six children were r and omly assigned to one of two treatment conditions , one of which was the Picture Exchange Communication System ( PECS ) . All children had access to picture symbols during assessment s. Post-treatment measurement of the number of picture exchanges in a far-transfer , assessment context favored the PECS intervention . These findings were interpreted as support for the hypothesis that the PECS curriculum can successfully teach a generalized means of showing coordinated attention to object and person without requiring eye contact to children with ASD Despite the psychosocial difficulties common among young adults with autism spectrum disorders ( ASD ) , little to no evidence -based social skills interventions exist for this population . Using a r and omized controlled trial ( RCT ) design , the current study tested the effectiveness of an evidence -based , caregiver-assisted social skills intervention known as PEERS for Young Adults  with high-functioning young adults with ASD ( ages 18–23 ) using self- and caregiver-report measures . Results revealed that treated young adults reported significantly less loneliness and improved social skills knowledge , while caregivers reported significant improvements in young adults ’ overall social skills , social responsiveness , empathy , and frequency of get-togethers . Results support the effectiveness of using this caregiver-assisted , manualized intervention for young adults with ASD BACKGROUND Delays and deficits in joint attention and symbolic play constitute two important developmental problems in young children with autism . These areas of deficit have been well studied in autism but have rarely been the focus of treatment efforts ( see Kasari , Freeman , & Paparella , 2001 ) . In this study , we examine the efficacy of targeted interventions of joint attention and symbolic play . METHODS Participants were 58 children with autism aged 3 and 4 years ( 46 boys ) . Children were r and omized to a joint attention intervention , a symbolic play intervention , or control group . Interventions were conducted 30 minutes daily for 5 - 6 weeks . Both structured assessment s of joint attention and play skills and mother-child interactions were collected pre and post intervention by independent assessors . RESULTS Results indicate that both intervention groups improved significantly over the control group on certain behaviors . Children in the joint attention intervention initiated significantly more showing and responsiveness to joint attention on the structured joint attention assessment and more child-initiated joint attention in the mother-child interaction . The children in the play group showed more diverse types of symbolic play in interaction with their mothers and higher play levels on both the play assessment and in interaction with their mothers . CONCLUSIONS This r and omized controlled trial provides promising data on the specificity and generalizability of joint attention and play interventions for young children with autism . Future studies need to examine the long-term effects of these early interventions on children 's development This study assessed the efficacy of FaceSay , a computer-based social skills training program for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders ( ASD ) . This r and omized controlled study ( N = 49 ) indicates that providing children with low-functioning autism ( LFA ) and high functioning autism ( HFA ) opportunities to practice attending to eye gaze , discriminating facial expressions and recognizing faces and emotions in FaceSay ’s structured environment with interactive , realistic avatar assistants improved their social skills abilities . The children with LFA demonstrated improvements in two areas of the intervention : emotion recognition and social interactions . The children with HFA demonstrated improvements in all three areas : facial recognition , emotion recognition , and social interactions . These findings , particularly the measured improvements to social interactions in a natural environment , are encouraging Children with autism exhibit significant deficits in imitation skills .  Reciprocal Imitation Training ( RIT ) , a naturalistic imitation intervention , was developed to teach young children with autism to imitate during play . This study used a r and omized controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of RIT on elicited and spontaneous imitation skills in 21 young children with autism . Results found that children in the treatment group made significantly more gains in elicited and spontaneous imitation , replicating previous single-subject design studies . Number of spontaneous play acts at pre-treatment was related to improvements in imitation during the intervention , suggesting that children with a greater play repertoire make greater gains during RIT A r and omized controlled design was employed to evaluate a social skills intervention for children with pervasive developmental disorders . Aims included evaluating the acceptability of the program and gathering preliminary evidence on efficacy . Forty-four children , ages 8–11 years , were r and omly assigned to  treatment or wait list . Treatment consisted of a 16-week group intervention design ed to teach appropriate social behavior . Between group comparisons showed that children in treatment were rated as improved on the primary outcome measure , ( unblinded parent report ) , but not on the secondary outcome measure , a parent question naire . Parents reported a high level of satisfaction with the intervention . The study supports the feasibility of this intervention to families and highlights challenges for future research in social skills intervention This study aim ed to determine if a joint attention intervention would result in greater joint engagement between caregivers and toddlers with autism . The intervention consisted of  24 caregiver-mediated sessions  with follow-up 1 year later . Compared to caregivers and toddlers r and omized to the waitlist control group the immediate treatment ( IT ) group made significant improvements in targeted areas of joint engagement . The IT group demonstrated significant improvements with medium to large effect sizes in their responsiveness to joint attention and their diversity of functional play acts after the intervention with maintenance of these skills 1 year post-intervention . These are among the first r and omized controlled data to suggest that short-term parent-mediated  interventions can have important effects on core impairments in toddlers with autism . Clinical Trials # : NCT00065910 Summary Background Results of small trials suggest that early interventions for social communication are effective for the treatment of autism in children . We therefore investigated the efficacy of such an intervention in a larger trial . Methods Children with core autism ( aged 2 years to 4 years and 11 months ) were r and omly assigned in a one-to-one ratio to a parent-mediated communication-focused ( Preschool Autism Communication Trial [ PACT ] ) intervention or treatment as usual at three specialist centres in the UK . Those assigned to PACT were also given treatment as usual . R and omisation was by use of minimisation of probability in the marginal distribution of treatment centre , age ( ≤42 months or > 42 months ) , and autism severity ( Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Generic [ ADOS-G ] algorithm score 12–17 or 18–24 ) . Primary outcome was severity of autism symptoms ( a total score of social communication algorithm items from ADOS-G , higher score indicating greater severity ) at 13 months . Complementary secondary outcomes were measures of parent-child interaction , child language , and adaptive functioning in school . Analysis was by intention to treat . This study is registered as an International St and ard R and omised Controlled Trial , number IS RCT N58133827 . Results 152 children were recruited . 77 were assigned to PACT ( London [ n=26 ] , Manchester [ n=26 ] , and Newcastle [ n=25 ] ) ; and 75 to treatment as usual ( London [ n=26 ] , Manchester [ n=26 ] , and Newcastle [ n=23 ] ) . At the 13-month endpoint , the severity of symptoms was reduced by 3·9 points ( SD 4·7 ) on the ADOS-G algorithm in the group assigned to PACT , and 2·9 ( 3·9 ) in the group assigned to treatment as usual , representing a between-group effect size of −0·24 ( 95 % CI −0·59 to 0·11 ) , after adjustment for centre , sex , socioeconomic status , age , and verbal and non-verbal abilities . Treatment effect was positive for parental synchronous response to child ( 1·22 , 0·85 to 1·59 ) , child initiations with parent ( 0·41 , 0·08 to 0·74 ) , and for parent-child shared attention ( 0·33 , −0·02 to 0·68 ) . Effects on directly assessed language and adaptive functioning in school were small . Interpretation On the basis of our findings , we can not recommend the addition of the PACT intervention to treatment as usual for the reduction of autism symptoms ; however , a clear benefit was noted for parent-child dyadic social communication . Funding UK Medical Research Council , and UK Department for Children , Schools and Families Tangible user interfaces ( TUIs ) embed computer technology in graspable objects . This study assessed the potential of Topobo , a construction toy with programmable movement , to support social interaction in children with Autistic Spectrum Conditions ( ASC ) . Groups of either typically developing ( TD ) children or those with ASC had group play sessions with Topobo and with LEGOTM . We recorded the extent and sequence of different categories of play during these sessions . For both participant groups , there were more social forms of play with Topobo than with LEGOTM . More solitary play occurred for LEGOTM and more parallel play occurred with Topobo . Topobo was also associated with more time in onlooker and cooperative play in TD . Finally , we observed differences in play sequences between TD and ASC children , and discuss how different play material s might produce specific patterns of play in these two groups This study tested the efficacy of a new social skills intervention , SocialSkillsGRoupINtervention-High Functioning Autism ( S.S.GRIN-HFA ) , design ed to improve social behaviors in children with high functioning autism spectrum disorders . Fifty-five children were r and omly assigned to S.S.GRIN-HFA treatment ( n = 27 ) or control ( i.e. , traditional S.S.GRIN intervention ; n = 28 ) . Examination of the direction and magnitude of change in functioning revealed that children who participated in S.S.GRIN-HFA exhibited significantly greater mastery of social skill concepts compared to children in the control group . Parents of S.S.GRIN-HFA group participants reported an improved sense of social self-efficacy , whereas parents of control participants reported a decline . The advantages of a specialized intervention such as S.S.GRIN-HFA , design ed specifically for children with high functioning autism spectrum disorders , are discussed Imitation is an early skill thought to play a role in social development , leading some to suggest that teaching imitation to children with autism should lead to improvements in social functioning . This study used a r and omized controlled trial to evaluate the effect of a focused imitation intervention on initiation of joint attention and social-emotional functioning in 27 young children with autism . Results indicated the treatment group made significantly more gains in joint attention initiations at post-treatment and follow-up and social-emotional functioning at follow-up than the control group . Although gains in social functioning were associated with treatment , a mediation analysis did not support imitation as the mechanism of action . These findings suggest the intervention improves social functioning in children with ASD An increasing body of literature has indicated that social stories are an effective way to teach individuals diagnosed with autism appropriate social behavior . This study compared two formats of a social story targeting the improvement of social skills during game play using a pretest posttest repeated measures r and omized control group design . A total of 45 children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder ( ASD ) ages 7–14 were r and omly assigned to st and ard , directive , or control story conditions . Results demonstrated that the st and ard and directive story formats were equally as effective in eliciting , generalizing and maintaining the targeted social skills in participants who had prior game play experience and Verbal Comprehension Index ( VCI ) scores from the WISC-IV intelligence test in the borderline range or above BACKGROUND The Picture Exchange Communication System ( PECS ) is a common treatment choice for non-verbal children with autism . However , little empirical evidence is available on the usefulness of PECS in treating social-communication impairments in autism . AIMS To test the effects of PECS on social-communicative skills in children with autism , concurrently taking into account st and ardized psychometric data , st and ardized functional assessment of adaptive behaviour , and information on social-communicative variables coded in an unstructured setting . METHODS & PROCEDURES Eighteen preschool children ( mean age = 38.78 months ) were assigned to two intervention approaches , i.e. PECS and Conventional Language Therapy ( CLT ) . Both PECS ( Phases I-IV ) and CLT were delivered three times per week , in 30-min sessions , for 6 months . Outcome measures were the following : Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule ( ADOS ) domain scores for Communication and Reciprocal Social Interaction ; Language and Personal-Social subscales of the Griffiths ' Mental Developmental Scales ( GMDS ) ; Communication and Social Abilities domains of the Vinel and Adaptive Behavior Scales ( VABS ) ; and several social-communicative variables coded in an unstructured setting . OUTCOMES & RESULTS Results demonstrated 
    Output:
    
Strong evidence was found that social skills groups , the Picture Exchange Communication System , joint attention interventions , and parent-mediated strategies can improve social participation .
The findings were less conclusive for interventions to improve play and leisure performance and to decrease restricted and repetitive behaviors , but several strategies showed promise with moderately strong supporting evidence .