A presentation for general educators on social skills in students with Autism Spectrum Disorders

1. UNDERSTANDING
SOCIAL SKILLS DEFICITS
AND INTERVENTIONS IN
STUDENTS WITH AUTISM
SPECTRUM DISORDERS
Ann Kennedy

2. SOCIAL SKILL
DEFICITS IN
AUTISM SPECTRUM
DISORDERS
Impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal
behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body postures,
and gestures to regulate social interaction.
Failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental
level.
Lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or
achievements with other people.
Lack of social and emotional reciprocity.
Social avoidance and withdrawal.
(Boutot & Myles, 2011)

3. EXAMPLES
OF
DEFICITS IN
SOCIAL
COMMUNICA
TION
Failure to establish eye contact . Failure to
make inferences.
Failure to use social non-verbal cues.
Indifference to others’ facial expressions.

4. EXAMPLES OF
DEFICITS IN
SOCIAL
INITIATION
Rarely initiate interactions
Interact frequently,
but inappropriately

5. Examples of
Deficits in
Social
Reciprocity
 Inability to engage in give-
and-take; hijacking the
conversation.
Failure to maintain joint attention.

6. Examples of
Deficits in
Social
Cognition
 Understanding and behaving
according to social norms.
Understanding idioms and
figures of speech
(Boutot & Myles, 2011)

7. Assessment of
SocialSkill
Development
 * Interviews with Caregivers
 * Rating Scales
 *Direct Observation
 Naturalistic
 Structured
 Functional BehavioralAnalysis
 Autism DiagnosticObservation
Schedule (ADOS)
 SocialSkills Rating Scale (SSR)
 School Social Behavior Scales,
2nd edition
 Home & CommunitySocial
Behavior Scales (HCSBS)
 (Heflin & Alaimo, 2007)

8. SocialSkills
Acquisition
Tools and Methods
 Social Stories
 Video Modeling andVideo Self-Modeling
 Social Problem-Solving
 Pivotal ResponseTraining
 Social Scripts

9. SocialStories
 Stories written to teach a particular skill or behavior
 Useful for teaching
 How to initiate interaction
 How to make smooth transitions between settings and activities
 How to follow the rules of a game
 What to expect when going on a field trip.

10. Example of a
SocialStory
What Can I Do On the Playground?
The playground has a lot of fun equipment.There are swings.There
is a slide.There is a climbing wall. I like the swings.Other children
like the swings, too.When other children are on the swings, I can
use the slide or climb. If I want to swing, I can say, “May I have a turn
on the swing?”When the other child gets off of the swing, I can
say, “Thank you!” and then I can swing.When another child asks for
a turn on the swing, I can get off of the swing and play on the other
equipment. It is fair for everyone to have a turn.

11. Video
Modeling
&
VideoSelf-
Monitoring
(VSM)
 Videos of the student (VSM) or another person (adult or child)
acting out a situation to model correct behavior. Requires
sufficient attention from the student. Benefits include:
 Visual field can be reduced so that extraneous information is
reduced and student can focus attention on correct issue.
 Reduced stress for the student because human interaction is limited.
 Children tend to love to watch videos, so motivation to attend in
naturally reinforced.

12. Example of
Video
Monitoring
Video teaching how to raise
hands to
answer questions at school.

13. Social Problem
Solving
 SPSTeaches children to analyze and interpret social situations.
 1. Describe a scenario
 2. Have students predict consequences
 3. Select alternative response to scenario
 4. Have children predict new consequences
 5. Select best outcome.

14. Social Problem
Solving
Example

15. Pivotal
Response
Training
(PRT)
PRT
 Teaches a child to respond to multiple cues
 Teaches a child to initiate interactions
 Enhances motivation by offering the child choices and using
natural reinforcers in the environment.
 Teaches greater self-management by fading prompt levels so
that the child is less dependent of prompts to respond.
 (Hall, 2013)

16. Example of
PRT

17. SocialScripts
 Social Scripts are rehearsed lines to be used in specific social
situations.
 Once learned, scripts can be faded and generalization can be
promoted.

18. Example of a
SocialScript
“Hello. My name is Bea. I go to Jefferson School. I am in the third grade.”
“Hello. My name is Bea. I go to Jefferson School….”

19. Scripting
Usedtoteachwhattosayin
specificconversationaland
playsituations.
Studentsmaybecome
dependentonthescriptand
havedifficultywith
spontaneity.
Requiresfadingtechnique
afterscriptislearned.
Video Modeling
 Combines visually-cued
instruction with modeling
strategies.
 Effective for teaching
communication, appropriate
behavior, and functional
skills.
 Has been shown to promote
lasting skill acquisition and
transfer to novel situations.
Social Problem
Solving
 Used to teach children with
ASD how to analyze and
interpret social situations.
 Requires the child to have
sufficient cognitive skills.
 Has not been shown to have
carry-over into novel
situations.
Comparison

20. Self-
Monitoring
 Students who are taught to
monitor and regulate their
own behavior can have
increased social
interaction, decreased off-
task behavior, and greater
generalization of skills across
settings.
 (Boutot & Myles, 2011)
Self Monitoring
Strategies:
 Setting Goals
 Self-recording techniques
 Reinforcement
 Self-Graphing
 Video monitoring
(Hall, 2013)

21. How to Initiate
Social
Interactions
withStudents
who have
ASD
 * Questions can be tricky – start with a statement instead. “I like
to go to the gym” rather than “Where do you like to go?”
 * Allow some extra time for a response – processing sometimes
takes longer in students with ASD.
 *Take some time to find out about the student’s special interests
and include some content about those interests.
 *Take sensory needs into consideration – if the room is too
bright, or too noisy, or has strong smells, or has a lot of visual
clutter, it may be too distracting for the student to maintain
attention in one area.
(Boutot & Myles, 2011; Heflin & Alaimo, 2007; Hall, 2013)

22. References
 Boutot, E. A., & Myles, B. S. (2011) Autism spectrum disorders:
Foundations, characteristics, and effective strategies. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Pearson Education
 Hall, L. J. (2013). Autism spectrum disorders: From theory to practice (2nd
ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education
 Heflin, L. J., & Alaimo, D. F. (2007). Students with autism spectrum disorders:
Effective instructional practices. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education