The Spotlight Program - Clinical Purpose
The Spotlight Program is a place that
fosters the development of social-emotional competence and
confidence. Our program provides an array of opportunities and
therapeutic services for youth ages 6-22 who struggle to
navigate the social world. This includes youth with
Asperger's Syndrome, PDD-NOS, High Functioning Autism, ADD/ADHD, Anxiety,
Mood Disorders and other related diagnoses. Spotlight
utilizes a unique, three-part model to facilitate social growth.
1) Developing trust and alliance between participants and staff to create safe, positive and fun relationships, then using those relationships to facilitate social learning.
2) Using drama, theater and improv
activities to provide a context for experiential social
pragmatic learning.
3) Creating strong, intrinsic motivation
by incorporating participants' special interests into group
activities.
The Spotlight Program is dedicated to the empowerment of youth and their families by responding to their evolving needs with specialized and enriched social programming.
Social Pragmatics Models - Traditional vs. Current Trends
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Traditional Didactic instruction Modeling Role playing Behavioral Instructional Structured game format
Extrinsically motivating approach
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Relationship & Affect-Based Structured but flexible instruction Self-modeling Contextual role playing Behaviorism as a tool Intrinsically motivating activities Games format PLUS “in vivo” learning
Self motivating approach
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The Growth of the Spotlight Program
Our first group ran in the summer of 2004 and was comprised of
9 participants ages 11-15 with Asperger’s Syndrome
Our 2010 summer camp served 72 participants and included children and adolescents with Asperger’s Syndrome, high functioning autism and other social-emotional deficits, ranging in age from 9-22
Over 188 participants’ developmental needs were met
in 2010 by Spotlight through the expansion of its services which include:
Social Scenes:
Spotlight as an Evidenced Based Treatment (EBT)
Spotlight actively participates in research to ensure our services meet quality standards for evidence-based practice (EBP). Based on a series of past and ongoing studies of the underlying intervention model used at Spotlight (Socio-Dramatic Affectively Relational Intervention; SDARI), this intervention meets the American Psychological Association’s standard for Probably Efficacious Treatment (Crits-Christoph, Frank, Chambless, Brody & Karp, 1995) and may meet the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Level II (“based on good evidence”) standard. The following is a list of published, presented, and unpublished studies on our model:
Lerner, M.D., Klein, E.F. (2011). To Know or to Do: Effects of Social Knowledge versus Performance Training in a School-Based Randomized Controlled Trial. American Psychological Association Annual Convention, Washington, DC, August, 2011.
Lerner, M.D, Mikami, A.Y., & Levine, K. (2011). Socio-Dramatic, Affective-Relational Intervention for Adolescents with Asperger Syndrome and High Functioning Autism: Pilot Study.
Autism, 1-22.
Pierce, A., Malavich, E., & Grieves, K. (2010).
Putting the Spotlight on Northeast Arc's Spotlight Program: Examining the Efficacy of a social pragmatics program. Unpublished Manuscript,
Lerner M.D., Spies J., Jordan B., & Mikami A.Y. (2009).
Critical Self-Referent Attributions Potentiate Social Skills Intervention Response in Adolescents with Asperger Syndrome & High-Functioning Autism.
International Meeting for Autism Research,
Lerner M.D., Calhoun C.D., & Mikami A.Y. (2009).
Biased Self-Perception Predicts Decreases in Social Anxiety for Autistic Spectrum Adolescents.
Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention,
For more detail about research, please view our research page
