Social Skills Training and Children with Autism: Does Teaching Children with Autism Social Skills Improve Their Relationships with Peers?
Overview of Autism
Children with autism have social skills deficits, which cause them to not socialize with their peers or learn from their peers (Carpenter, Soorya, & Halpern, 2009). In general, children with autism do not attend specialized schools for their needs. Instead children with autism attend regular schools with typical peers (Laushey, Heflin, Shippen, Alberto & Fredrick, 2009). Typical peers are children of the same age that display no mental or physical delays; as a result, they are normal. Without a foundation in social skills children with autism will continue to be left behind as their typical peers grow and learn more.
Although there is no known cure for autism, there are ways to help children with autism improve their social delays. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has acknowledged the importance of social skills training, the APA has defined autism as being a disorder that greatly effects verbal and nonverbal communication and greatly impairs all things that have to do with social interaction (APA, 2001). Children with autism will not learn from interactions with their typical peers alone, there needs to be some adult intervention as well (Disalvo & Oswald, 2002). The main obstacle that children have to overcome when they are diagnosed with autism is their social skills impairments (Carpenter et al., 2009).
The Use of Direct Instruction
Direct instruction is tools with empirical evidence proven to help children with autism learn social skills which they can then implement at school and beyond. Direct instruction is defined as the use of a researcher or teache...
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Development of social skills is very important for children that are diagnosed with autism because of ...
Soenksen and Alper, 2006 D. Soenksen, S. Alper Teaching a young child to appropriately gain attention of peers using a social story intervention Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 21 (1) (2006), pp. 36–44
Discrete trial teaching is a teaching method classified by the fast pace delivery and shortened period of instructions (5-20 seconds) and incorporation of prompts, which is also referred to as errorless learning. DTT is under the umbrella of ABA and it is a method used to teach new skills and behaviors to children on the autism spectrum. As well DTT uses a unique style of teaching, errorless learning. Which unlike the normal teaching of trial and error. This style of teaching has been shown to be very effective with children with autism. Furthermore, Applied Behavior analysis seeks to address the antecedent and consequences of behavior ( Hunter class). There is over 60 years of research to support the effectiveness of ABA to address the behavior or children with development disabilities. Furthermore we discussed in lecture that punishment and reinforcement are the driving principle behind changing behavior. DTT uses carefully timed reinforcement to support newly learned behaviors and skills. This research indicates that the use of ABA leads to very effective results in children. (Hunter, 2015)
Wynn, D., Kaufman, M., Montalban, X., Vollmer, T., Simon, J., Elkins, J., I Rose, J. W. (2010).
“Your child has autism spectrum disorder” are words no parent wants to hear. They are words that will instill fear, worry, and sadness. When parents hear this for the first time, they will have many questions. “Is there anything I can do to help my child? If so, what can be done?” Early intervention services; such as applied behavior analysis therapy, occupational therapy, sensory integration therapy, and speech therapy before the age of three; can help improve the development of children with autism spectrum disorder. As an educator, early intervention is a subject teachers should be well educated in. It would be beneficial to the educator and the student, for a teacher to know and understand early intervention strategies.
Children with autism have multiple characteristic impairments in their social interaction skills. This results from the lack of “Theory of Mind” in autistic individuals. Autistic children have difficulty interpreting what another person may be thinking or feeling. Social impairments may cause the child to act inappropriately in social interactions and prevent the children from truly taking part in interactions. The children have difficulty recognizing social cues and responding to cues. Autistic children have a hard time forming relationships as a result of these impairments. Social stories, Applied Behavior Analysis, and Pivotal Response Training are three therapy techniques that help children with autism learn appropriate social behavior. Social stories allow the children to practice the situation in a lower stress environment. Applied Behavior Analysis utilizes positive reinforce to teach desired skills. Pivotal Response Training allows the child to learn social skills while in a natural play environment. Learning social skills through these techniques enable the children to have more meaningful relationships and engage more in their community.
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Autistic children are isolated from most schools, socially and within the classroom. Although most children with auti...
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Autism is a disease. One of the main characteristics is having social problems. Children with Autism have trouble interacting with other children. They won’t play with other children. They could be so focus...
Whenever the benefits of inclusion are brought up the first component that comes to mind is: social interaction. The benefits of social interaction is the most important component for including children with autism in an inclusion, general education setting (Lynch & Irvine, 2009). The reason this benefit is so high within a general education setting is that interactions occur at a greater frequency. Typical peers that meet cor...
Timpano, K. R., Keough, M. E., Mahaffey, B., Schmidt, N. B., & Abramowitz, J. (2010).
Since Autism doesn’t present the same in each person, everyones needs are unique. Where some will excel others may drag behind, it 's important to figure out what areas need to be focused on more so than others early on so you can target them with structured programs and activities. Most people with Autism have underlying medical conditions as well as behavioral conditions so being on the correct medication and monitoring that is very important. Often times it 's recommended for children with Autism to go to therapy sessions for speech, social interaction skills, and general development. It 's extremely important to focus on social skills since that 's one of the main components of Autism is a lack or strain on social skills. Enrolling your children in specialized structured activities to help them work on their social skills is important for their
Kamps, D. et.al. (2002). Peer Training to Facilitate Social Interaction for Elementary Students with Autism and Their Peers. Exceptional Children, 68 (2), 173-187.