ACE - Autism Connections Europe

The project Autism Connection Europe (ACE) will focus on adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who are lacking different communication skills, which also reflects on their flexibility of thinking. Projects activities will develop new approaches, which will attempt to improve communication skills and reduce persons with ASD's social exclusion. The Institute of Communication and Health (ICH) at the University of Lugano will test the effectiveness of these approaches in an experimental before/after design, using a control group as reference. Interviews will have to be conducted face-to-face, with some temporal gap to allow effects to occur. They will focus on communication skills and employ validated instruments, possibly adjusted for the special respondent group of persons with ASD. Instruments to be considered include one or two of the following scales: the Self-Perceived Communication Competence Scale (SPCC), Willingness To Communicate (WTC), the Willingness to Listen Measure, and the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA).