Pilot Trial of a Social Skills Group Treatment (Secret Agent Society Program)

Several independent evaluations have supported the effectiveness of the Secret Agent Society (SAS) Program in improving the social-emotional functioning of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in clinic- (Beaumont \& Sofronoff, 2008; Tan, Mazzucchelli \& Beaumont, submitted), school-(Beaumont, Rotolone \& Sofronoff, in press; Einfeld et al., submitted) and remote Skype/telephone-assisted delivery contexts (Sofronoff, Silva \& Beaumont, in press).The present study aims to extend on the above literature by conducting a 6-month randomized controlled trial evaluating the effectiveness, utility and acceptability (including cultural acceptability) of the Secret Agent Society (SAS) social-emotional skills training program. Specifically, the study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the SAS Program for 8-12 year-old children with social difficulties in the context of a range of diagnosed mental health conditions and/or developmental disorders, including anxiety disorders, ADHD, and Autism Spectrum Disorder.