Sexual knowledge acquisition and retention for individuals with autism

Abstract

Healthy Relationships & Autism is a developmentally sequenced, manualized intervention intended for children and adolescents with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The curriculum is designed to facilitate healthy interpersonal relationships; three modules cover personal hygiene, sexual knowledge, and a variety of productive interpersonal relations. The current study investigates the effectiveness of the strategies used to increase sexual knowledge for individuals with ASD. Specifically, short step-by-step concrete explanations that are paired with visual modeling and repeated practice accompanied by corrective feedback were delivered to six adolescents who showed a wide range of functional abilities. Pre, post, and one month follow-up measures show that the HR curriculum was effective in increasing sexual knowledge acquisition and retention regardless of the child's level of difficulties.

Keywords::

• autism
• ASD
• sexual knowledge
• sex education

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Liza Pask

Liza Pask, PhD, is a graduate of the School Psychology program at Duquesne University and is currently completing her post-doctoral residency assessing and treating children with complex mental health needs. Her research interests have included facilitating the healthy sexual development and appropriate interpersonal interactions of children and adolescents with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. Other areas of professional interest include the assessment and intervention of children who present with social-emotional difficulties and those who have experienced complex trauma.

Tammy L. Hughes

Tammy L. Hughes, PhD, is the Chair of the Department of Counseling, Psychology and Special Education at Duquesne University. She is a licensed psychologist and certified school psychologist. Her writing is in the area of child violence, differentiating emotional disturbance and social maladjustment, and understanding the relationship between emotional dysregulation and conduct problems in children. Her clinical experience includes assessment, counseling, and consultation services in alternative education and juvenile justice settings focusing on parent–school–interagency treatment planning and integrity monitoring. She is currently funded by the ASERT Collaborative through a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, Bureau of Autism Services to train juvenile justice service providers to address the needs of youth with autism who are adjudicated delinquent.

Lawrence R. Sutton

Lawrence R. Sutton is a licensed psychologist, employed as a psychologist working with individuals with autism. Prior to working with the Bureau of Autism Services, he worked as Chief Psychologist for the Bureau of Juvenile Justice Services, supervising psychological services in the 14 sites/Centers. He focused his work in part on those individuals who had a developmental disability and who were being housed in the sexual offender programs. In this work, he attempted to identify service, treatment, and rehabilitation gaps of adolescents, which may have led to their involvement in the criminal justice system. He developed methods to fill some of those gaps by identifying treatment practices both within the criminal justice system as well as within the community (to help to prevent the need for criminal justice involvement/confinement of similar individuals).