Promoting social interactions between students with autism spectrum disorders and their peers in inclusive school settings (original) (raw)
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Frontiers in Psychology, 2016
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by difficulties with social interaction and communication, which manifest at school especially in less structured situations such as recess. Recess provides opportunities for relationship with peers in a natural context, for which students with ASD may not be equipped with the necessary skills to use without support. Using a single-case design, we evaluated an intervention applied in recess to improve the social interaction skills of a student with high-functioning ASD mediated by his peers without ASD, in second grade of elementary school. This intervention includes different strategies to initiate the peers without ASD, using direct instruction, modeling, and social reinforcement carried out in the recess setting. After 14 sessions, changes were observed in the rates of initiating and responding to interactions, and a negative trend in the percentage of time that the student maintained low-intensity interactions or was alone. Teachers and family perceived improvements in social skills, more peer acceptance, and increase in the frequency and duration of social interactions. This intervention can help teachers to apply research-based practices to improve some social interaction skills in high-functioning students with autism in inclusive school environments.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1992
We investigated the use of social skills groups to facilitate increased social interactions for students with autism and their nonhandicapped peers in an integrated first-grade classroom. Social skills groups consisted of training students and peers in initiating, responding, and keeping interactions going; greeting others and conversing on a variety of topics; giving and accepting compliments; taking turns and sharing; asking for help and helping others; and including others in activities. Training occurred during the first 10 min of 20-min play groups, four times per week. Using a multiple baseline across subjects design, results demonstrated increases in the frequency of, time engaged in, and duration of social interactions, as well as the responsivity of students and peers to each other. Results were maintained when students were monitored and given feedback on social performance in play groups and during follow-up. DESCRIPTORS: autism, social skills, integration, peer social interaction Students with autism exhibit a multitude of asocial and antisocial characteristics (Autism Society ofAmerica, 1990). By definition, appropriate social behavior implies positive or at least functional interaction with others. Consequently, there has been an increase in research investigations that use peer strategies (e.g., modeling, prompting, tutoring) as a vehide for increasing learning and improving social relationships of students with autism and other developmental disabilities (e.g., Carr & Dar
This article describes a qualitative examination of the interactions between 2 students, 1 with autism and 1 with a developmental disability, and their peers without disabilities in 2 inclusive, public school elementary classrooms in the northeastern United States. Data were collected by naturalistic observation, semi-structured observation, and semi-structured interviews. Examining the quality and quantity of interactions, as well as the facilitating effects of educators, the goal was to identify conditions that support the development of friendship opportunities. The findings indicated that inclusive education and having classmates who accepted them were not enough to result in consistent friendship opportunities for the 2 focal students. Findings included (a) the identification of missed opportunities for educator intervention to support friendship opportunities, and (b) the success of several educator strategies to facilitate friendship opportunities. Implications and considerations to improve conditions to support friendship opportunities in inclusive elementary classrooms are shared.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1984
We evaluated the effects of a peer-training strategy, consisting of direct prompting and modeling, on the occurrence and duration of interactions between autistic students and nonautistic peertrainers. Data were obtained in both training and generalization settings. The results of a multiplebaseline design across students demonstrated that: (a) the direct prompting procedure produced immediate and substantial increases in the occurrences and durations of positive social interactions between the peer-trainers and autistic students; (b) these increases were maintained across time at levels above baseline during subsequent free-play probes; (c) these findings were judged by teachers to be socially valid; (d) untrained peers increased their interactions with the autistic students in three of the four groups; (e) generalization of behavior change across settings occurred only after specific programming; and (f) interactions between untrained peers and peer-trainers decreased following training. Variables that may account for the results and the implications of these findings for peer-mediated interventions are discussed. DESCRIPTORS: Social behavior, generalization, peers, autistic children Deviant or delayed patterns of social interaction often characterize the behavior of autistic children (Denckla, 1983; Ritvo & Freeman, 1978; Rutter, 1978). Descriptions of their social withdrawal have induded little or no eye contact, lack of appropriate play with peers, active avoidance of social contact, and failure to initiate or sustain interactions (Ritvo & Freeman, 1978; Rutter, 1978). These characteristics may decrease the likelihood that au-This artide is based on a thesis submitted by Michael S.
Social involvement of children with autism spectrum disorders in elementary school classrooms
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2010
Background-Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are increasingly included in general education classrooms in an effort to improve their social involvement. Methods-Seventy-nine children with ASD and 79 randomly-selected, gender-matched peers (88.6% male) in 75 early (K-1), middle (2 nd-3 rd), and late (4 th-5 th) elementary classrooms across 30 schools completed social network surveys examining each child's reciprocal friendships, peer rejection, acceptance, and social involvement. Results-Across grade levels, peers less frequently reciprocated friendships with children with ASD than students in the matched sample. While children with ASD were not more likely to be rejected by peers, they were less accepted and had fewer reciprocal friendships than matched peers at each grade level. Although 48.1% of children with ASD were involved in the social networks of their classrooms, children with ASD were more likely to be isolated or peripheral to social relationships within the classroom across all grade levels, and this difference is even more dramatic in later elementary grades. Conclusions-In inclusive classrooms, children with ASD are only involved in peers' social relationships about half of the time, and appear to be even less connected with increasing grade level. Promoting children with ASD's skills in popular activities to share with peers in early childhood may be a key preventive intervention to protect social relationships in late elementary school grades.
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2011
Background: This study compared two interventions for improving the social skills of high functioning children with autism spectrum disorders in general education classrooms. One intervention involved a peer-mediated approach (PEER) and the other involved a child-assisted approach (CHILD). Method: The two interventions were crossed in a 2 • 2 factorial design yielding control, PEER, CHILD, and both PEER and CHILD conditions. Sixty children participated from 56 classrooms in 30 schools. Interventions involved 12 sessions over 6 weeks, with a 3-month follow-up. Outcome measures included self, peer and teacher reports of social skills and independent weekly observations of children on their school playground over the course of the intervention. Results: Significant improvements were found in social network salience, number of friendship nominations, teacher report of social skills in the classroom, and decreased isolation on the playground for children who received PEER interventions. Changes obtained at the end of the treatment persisted to the 3-month follow-up. Conclusions: These data suggest that significant improvements can be made in peer social connections for children with autism spectrum disorders in general education classrooms with a brief intervention, and that these gains persist over time.
Increasing the Social Interaction of Two Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Peers
International Journal of Early Childhood Special Education, 2019
This study examined the effect of the Group Affection Activities (GAA) on social interaction of two preschool-aged children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and their same-aged peers. In addition to the music group activities, the main component of the GAA game learning activities and peer-training were integrated into the intervention. Five peers were trained on how to interact with the target participants of the study. This including initiation of and responding to initaiations through means of both verbal and nonverbal communication acts during free play. This study utilized a case study design with an ABAB model revealed that improved rates of social interactions were associated with the presence of the intervention. The findings agree with those reported by previously conducted studies, however the maintenance and generalization of improved interaction skills remain to be of a great concern. It is suggested that in order to address this important issue, an intervention program combining the Group Affection Activities with peertraining should be systematically integrated into early childhood curriculum and implemented for all to benefit.
Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines, 2015
Peer relationships improve for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in clinic-based social skills groups but rarely generalize to real world contexts. This study compares child outcomes of two social skills interventions conducted in schools with children in Kindergarten through fifth grade. Children with ASD were randomized to one of two interventions that varied on group composition (mixed typical and ASD vs. all ASD or social difficulties) and intervention approach (didactic SKILLS based vs. activity-based ENGAGE groups). Interventions were implemented at school for 8 weeks (16 sessions) with an 8-week follow-up. Innovative measures of peer nomination and playground peer engagement, as well as teacher reports of child behavior problems and teacher-child relationship were analyzed for 137 children with ASD across four sites. On the primary outcome of social network connections from the peer nomination measure, there was no main effect of treatment, but there were moderator...