Now recruiting participants to evaluate a game-based social skills intervention for children with social skills difficulties

[Emily Brown]

Do you or does anyone you know have a child who is having trouble making or keeping friends? Sometimes shyness, aggression, or just not relating to other kids can get in the way of friendship. We’d like to help.

 As part of a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the Center for Research in Emotional and Social Health (CRESH) is developing a computer-based social skills program for students, Adventures Aboard the S.S. GRIN.

 In order to evaluate the effectiveness of this program, we are looking for approximately 100 children who will be in grades 3-5 in the fall of 2013 to interact with and review 4 episodes of the computer program.

 If your child is eligible and you and your child are chosen to participate in the study, you and your child will be asked to:

Complete online questionnaires about your child’s social skills.

• View a 30-minute orientation video during which you and your child will be trained in the use of an online system to access and evaluate the program.
• Interact with and review the computer program over the course of four weeks. We expect the episodes to take approximately 30 minutes each to play and review. You will receive one episode per week via email and your child will be given one week to complete the assigned episode from the comfort of your own home. Depending on the group to which you are assigned, your child will complete the computer program in July or November.
• Complete the online social skills questionnaires twice more, in early August and late October.

All parts of the project will be completed online; therefore, access to a computer with internet access is required for participation in this study.

All children who participate will be compensated with Amazon gift codes for their time spent interacting with the program and completing online questionnaires. Total possible compensation if all parts of the project are completed is $75.

If you would like to participate or have any questions about the research study, please contact Emily Brown at 919-677-0102 ext.596 or [e-mail].

[Morganne Ray]

Is this still going on?