Social Skills Training for Children with Autism

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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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...ctancies.’ Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 17, pp. 198-207.

Laushey, K. M., Heflin, L .J., Shippen, M., Alberto, P. A., & Fredrick, L. (2009). Concept mastery routines to teach social skills to elementary children with high functioning autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 39(10), 1435-1448. doi:
10.1007/s10803-009-0757-9

Sancho, K., Sidener, T. M., Reeve, S. A., & Sidener, D. W. (2010). Two variations of video modeling interventions for teaching play skills to children with autism. Education and Treatment of children, 33(10), 421-442

Walker, A. N., Barry, T. D., & Bader, S. H. (2010) Therapist and parent ratings of changes in adaptive social skills following a summer treatment camp for children with autism spectrum disorders: a preliminary study. Child Youth Care Forum, 39(10), 305-322. doi: 10.1007/s10566-010-9110-x

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