There is a critical need for ASD interventions targeting executive function (EF) skills, higher-order cognitive abilities including flexibility, goal setting, planning, organization, big picture thinking, and task completion. EF deficits are profound in ASD, and related to significantly reduced ability to function, and ultimately live, independently. Our lab, in collaboration with students with ASD, their parents and teachers, created “On Target for Life” (OTFL), a school based EF intervention for adolescents with ASD. OTFL is an upward extension of our research proven EF intervention for younger children with ASD (“Unstuck and On Target” ), and employs a range of research based intervention/generalization techniques specifically designed to optimize learning in adolescents. We will conduct a randomized comparative effectiveness trial of OTFL and a comparison social skills intervention in the Fairfax County Public Schools. Assessment will use our lab’s established methods for measuring EF in ASD, including measures that were sensitive to intervention in our randomized comparative effectiveness trial of UOT. Our primary goal is to provide a research-proven EF intervention for immediate use in public and private school settings, so as to reach the broadest number of adolescents with ASD. We will also use the data for an NIH application (and similar grant mechanisms) to study the longitudinal impact of EF intervention in adolescence, as well as predictors of response.
Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC)
Autism Research Database (AFD)
