title: Assessment of the prerequisite skills for cognitive behavioral therapy in children with and without autism spectrum disorders.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to assess the cognitive skills of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) thought to be necessary for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Forty children with ASD and forty age-matched typically developing children between the ages of 7-12 years participated. Groups were comparable with regard to nonverbal IQ, but children with ASD had significantly lower verbal IQ. Children completed three CBT-related tasks requiring emotion recognition, discrimination among thoughts, feelings and behaviors, and cognitive mediation. With the exception of the emotion recognition task, children with ASD performed comparably to typically developing children and with a high rate of accuracy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Wyoming, 1000 E. University Ave, Laramie, WY 82071, USA. Athena.Lickel@gmail.com
authors.forename: Athena
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lickel
authors.forename: William E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: MacLean
authors.forename: Audrey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Blakeley-Smith
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hepburn
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D003071:Cognition; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D008297:Male; D012938:Social Perception