The role o f research exploring deficits within a particular group is to determine the differences between these groups. Indeed, the groups did differ on measures o f executive function, theory o f mind and the Predicaments. However, the Asperger’s group were able to understand these reasonably complex predicaments and generate solutions to them. One participant with Asperger’s suggested a number o f solutions for the predicament “dogs” described in the method, “try and get to sleep and forget about it”, “go to the council and complain”, “suggest some ideas to the people upstairs”, “have a chat with them and tell them this can’t go on, they have to move them” and “he could move”. Further while the Asperger’s group were likely to generate more extreme solutions, visual inspection shows that they did not chose these solutions, at least in this task, for optimal or personal solutions. The results here suggest that this group can think o f a number o f solutions and recognise the pertinent aspects o f a predicament. This means that an area for intervention may be in considering how this group evaluate and choose solutions. A particular focus implicated by the present data would be in planning and monitoring possible solutions, especially in terms o f their social appropriateness. Social skills groups aimed at teaching specific skills, have had some success. Ozonoff & Miller (1995) ran a 14 session social skills group and reported some improvement post assessment in their group o f normal IQ autistic adolescent boys. In this group specific skills were taught including conversational skills, emotional expression recognition, perspective taking and theory o f mind skills. The video format o f Predicaments enables one to follow through the pertinent aspects o f a difficult situation, through someone else’s perspective and one’s own and could be used effectively in any educational programme. It may also be useful as a pre and post
assessment measure.
Other types o f social skills teaching has focused on understanding rather than learning per se. Gray (1998) used short stories and comic strip conversations of social situations to facilitate social interaction. Gray suggests that these types of task can improve social skills through improved social understanding. The video format o f Predicaments would not only be a good assessment tool for considering where particular difficulties might lie for the individual, but may also be useful as an educational tool, for parents and professionals. This would allow these young people to consider their choices and their consequences, against alternative options and maybe develop appropriate strategies for planning and monitoring these options. Attwood (1998) acknowledges that although learning social and emotional skills may seem like an arduous task, that young people with Asperger’s respond well in general to these programmes. He predicts the more we know about why the errors occur, the more successfully strategies can be developed to overcome them
4.6 Future Research
Furture research with Predicaments is needed to establish this as a validated measure with this group. In this instance Predicaments did not correlate with performance on the DEX. Other measures to establish convergent and divergent validity will need to look at the prescence o f social skills as well social difficulties. Various ratings by relatives, teachers, and professionals would have to be included. It is likely that Predicaments may require some adjustments to increase efficacy for use with a younger population, but once validated and adjusted accordingly, it could be used in future research. Research looking at different groups, could improve our understanding o f what types of executive dysfunction
and theory of mind deficits are related to what aspects of social difficulties. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder has been associated with executive dysfunction, Pennington & Ozonoff (1996). This is another group which also experience social difficulties, although of a somewhat different nature. Performance on Predicaments, executive function tasks and theory o f mind tasks could be used to differentiate social deficits between Asperger’s and autism and indeed, other groups. Happe and Frith (1996) suggest that both executive function and theory of mind theories have a role to play in future research alongside central coherence accounts in informing the search for the genetic mechanisms. Predicaments may be useful in this type of search. Tasks which identify more subtle deficits in relatives of probands, have been used in this type of research. Inquiry into autism has been of interest to clinical psychology and neuropsychology and the combination of methods has led to a detailed account of the phenotype of this disorder. Functional brain imaging and attempts to identify biochemical abnormalities offer opportunities to link brain mechanisms with our current knowledge of the cognitive aspects of this syndrome. Much research has been focused on younger children in order to pinpoint primary deficits. Research with this older group may give us more insight into how these delayed or damaged skills present and are compensated for as these children develop.