Effects of a Social Skills Intervention Among High School Students With Intellectual Disabilities and Autism and Their General Education Peers (original) (raw)
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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
Focus on Autism and …, 2008
This study evaluated the impact of a peer training intervention on social interactions among three students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and their typical peers. Two second graders and one fourth grader with ASD participated. For each student with ASD, two to four typical peers participated in training sessions that targeted increased social interactions. Data collected during lunchtime and recess showed that the peer training intervention generally resulted in increased initiations by trained peers as well as increased initiations and responses by students with ASD. Unexpectedly, untrained peers also showed increased initiations. Future research directions are discussed, including characteristics of the peers selected for training (e.g., gender, popularity) and measurement of qualitative changes in social relationships and opportunities.
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2021
There is a dearth of research that focuses on social intervention efforts for adults on the autism spectrum with intellectual disability and limited conversational language. Using a multiple baseline experimental design, this pilot investigation of the Socialization Knowledge for Individuals with Limited Language (SKILL) program evaluated a novel peer-facilitated group program specifically designed to target social interaction skills for this population. Findings from five pilot participants yielded evidence of social improvements across specific verbal skills (on-topic conversational contributions and responses) and nonverbal behaviors (eye-contact, active listening), as evidenced by coded social conversation probes and parent-report measures. These findings demonstrate the promise of a socialization intervention for a population that has historically been neglected in the social intervention research literature.
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, 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.
1997
This booklet identifies and discusses methods and procedures to facilitate appropriate social interactions between children and youth with autism and classroom teachers and other school personnel. It is designed to provide information and techniques that are useful in developing social interaction programs. An overview of four approaches commonly used to promote social development in children and youth with autism is provided. In the first approach, direct skill instruction, a practitioner first identifies social skills that need to be developed, then determines the steps required to build those skills and provides practice in a variety of settings. The second approach, antecedent prompting procedures, calls for a teacher to prompt the child to engage in some kind of interactive behavior, which, when it occurs, is responded to positively by classmates and the teacher. In the third approach, peer initiation strategies, socially competent peers are taught how to initiate and encourage social interactions with children with autism in natural settings. The final approach, peer tutoring, has socially competent peers learn to use effective teaching techniques and positive reinforcement to teach academic subjects to classmates with autism. The booklet also includes a brief historical review of research findings on social interaction instruction. (Contains 94 references.) (CR)
Promoting social communication in high functioning individuals with autistic spectrum disorders
Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 2003
This paper reviews a range of social communication interventions that have been developed for students with autism at the preschool, school-age, and adolescent level. Both adult-mediated and peer-mediated methods that use highly structured, child-centered, and hybrid methods are examined. Programs that provide information on generalization and maintenance are identified. A set of recommendations for programs that would appear to be most appropriate for students with Asperger Syndrome is presented. Paul Social Communication Promoting Social Communication in High Functioning Individuals with Autistic Spectrum Disorders Social and communicative dysfunctions are arguably the most handicapping conditions associated with Asperger syndrome. Although the rubric social communication is frequently used to encompass these deficits, social communication is actually a redundant term. All communication, by its definition as an exchange of information between speaker and listener(s), is social in nature. However, the purpose of using the term social communication here is to focus attention on the close relationship between the linguistic forms of communication utilized by high functioning individuals with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs), and the function of these skills in the achievement of social interaction. In fact, in typical individuals over the age of three, linguistic communication is the primary modality of social interchange. While linguistic communication skills are used for a variety of purposes-including regulating others' behavior, referring to objects and events, narrating and predicting experiences, and learning academic content-the present paper will focus on just one of these functions: achieving mutuality and engagement with others. Effectively establishing this engagement, even with access to advanced language skills, constitutes one of the core deficits of intelligent individuals with AS. Social communicative abilities are crucial to achieving the community integration and peer acceptance that would seem to be within the 2 Paul Social Communication grasp of these bright young people, yet so often eludes them. The high rates of depression reported in verbal adolescents with ASDs are generally interpreted to be a reaction to this frustrating situation. 1 Young people with AS are frequently eloquent in their despondency at their isolation from the social world. 2 This review of programs for addressing social communication needs in AS, then, will highlight what is known about recruiting the language competencies possessed by high functioning individuals in the service of promoting cooperative play, social inclusion, and friendship. It will examine programs that target interactive skills at a range of developmental levels from preschool through adolescence, and with a range of theoretical perspectives from highly teacherdirected discrete trial methods to more naturalistic and child-centered approaches. An effort will be made to highlight programs that have reported carefully applied research designs, well-defined groups of children, and appropriate measures of change and generalization in peer-reviewed venues, which, unfortunately, constitute a minority of the programs advocated for this population. Although the focus of this volume is on Asperger syndrome, the needs of children with this disorder do not differ greatly from those of high functioning children with other kinds of ASDs. Since most research on social communication training has focused on children with autism or PDD-NOS, and few published studies have looked at AS exclusively, studies that include high functioning, verbal children at all points along the autistic spectrum will be included. At the conclusion of the review, this information will be interpreted in Paul Social Communication light of the specific characteristics of AS, and recommendations for selecting programs most appropriate for the AS population will be made. Early Social Communicative Interventions During the preschool period, between 3 and 5 years of age, typical children develop a range of social interaction skills that are mediated in important ways by their language development. Garvey 3 showed that children as young as three use language to negotiate play roles and activities ("I'll be the doctor and you can be the sick person"). According to Patterson & Westby, 4 children by age three use language for a multitude of purposes in play, including to narrate action, to plan future events in the play context, to mark dialogue with metalinguistic markers such as 'he said,' and to vary voices to distinguish characters. Children with AS, even though they do not show significant delays in the acquisition of the forms of language, are, as a result of their core deficits, less able to demonstrate these varied uses of language in the context of cooperative play, and often show great difficulty in entering sociodramatic play situations without support. 5 For these reasons, social communication programs in the preschool period typically use play as the primary context. Wolfberg 6 reports that, without support, verbal children with ASDs tend toward repetitive enactments of solitary routines around their obsessive interests and avoid social play or approach peers with obscure, one-sided overtures that are unlikely to be reciprocated. Schuler and Wolfberg 5 discuss the challenges in helping children with ASDs participate more successfully in social play. One of Paul Social Communication 20. Krantz PJ & McClannahan LE. Social interaction skills for children with autism: A script-fading procedure for beginning readers.
Efforts to Teach Social Interaction to Autism Students in Inclusive Elementary Schools
Pedagonal : Jurnal Ilmiah Pendidikan
The purpose of this study was to analyze efforts to teach social interaction interactions to autistic children in inclusive elementary schools. The research method used is narrative inquiry. Research subjects are children with autistic barriers in inclusive primary schools. Subjects have difficulty controlling behavior, tend not to pay attention to their interlocutor when interacting, and display repetitive behavior, moving their fingers, shouting, laughing for no apparent reason, and tantrums. Assessment of the social interaction ability of children with autistic barriers can be seen from eye contact, facial expressions, repetitive or odd movements that are less focused, lack of ability to play with friends, and emotional states such as crying or sudden anger. The form of interaction of autistic children in inclusive elementary schools leads to a form of cooperation. Subjects often work on assignments with their study groups, even though the subjects have not been able to express i...