Neurocognitive Status and Social Skills in FAS and ARND

University Of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Alcohol has been shown to be a significant behavioral teratogen affecting approximately 1 in 100 children born in the United States annually. Both neurocognitive and social skills deficits have been documented in children with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and alcohol related neurodevelopmental disorder (ARND). The proposed research will be integrated into a newly funded study investigating the effects of a social skills intervention for children 6-8 years of age diagnosed with FAS and ARND. Children will be randomly assigned in 7 cohorts of 16 participants each to one of two conditions: Parent-Assisted Social Skills Training (SST, n=56) or Wait List (WL, n=56). For each cohort there will be 8 children in each condition. Each cohort takes part in a 12-week social skills intervention. The current proposal expands on this study by investigating the relationship between neurocognitive status and social skills in this population. This will be achieved by utilizing a neuropsychological test battery at baseline, consisting of measures shown to be sensitive to prenatal alcohol exposure and related to social skills deficits in other neurologically impaired populations. It is hypothesized that neurocognitive status will be significantly related to social skills competence at baseline and that are currently reported for these children nor any study on the relation between neurocognitive and social skills integrity, this study is one of the first of its kind.