SOCIAL SKILLS FOR CHILDREN WITH ASD
INTRODUCTION
This page has been written to help teachers and parents understand social skills, and the ways that children with autism spectrum disorders can learn them. Many parents and teachers have heard the term "social skills', but are unclear as to what exactly social skills are, why they are important, and how we can teach children who have a social skills deficit.
WHAT ARE SOCIAL SKILLS?
According to Wikipedia, "Social skills are a group of skills which people need to interact and communicate with others. Social rules and relations are created, communicated, and changed in verbal and nonverbal ways".
Social skills cover a huge range of skills. The list below shows an example of some social skills appropriate to school-aged children. The list is not exhaustive- there are many more! We have grouped the skills into rough categories, however in reality all skills overlap and affect other areas:
Emotional Skills
- knowing what the basic emotions are
- recognising facial expressions
- forming facial expressions
- verbally expressing emotions
- understanding how to react appropriately to other people's emotions
- predicting other people's emotional responses
- reading body language and tone of voice to inform about other people's emotions and express your own
- expressing extreme emotions such as excitement, anxiety and anger in an appropriate way
- waiting
Play Skills
- using play equipment appropriately
- knowing the rules to games
- taking turns
- sharing
- negotiating
- behaving appropriately after winning or losing
- initiating a game or asking someone to play
- responding to invitations to play
- starting/finishing play appropriately
Conversational Skills
- using manners
- using greetings
- initiating conversation
- responding to conversation
- answering questions
- asking questions
- staying on topic
- finishing conversation appropriately
- listening in a conversation
- understanding or making jokes
- expressing and responding to 'no' in an appropriate way
- expressing own viewpoint
Friendship Skills
- making friends/ introducing yourself
- keeping friends
- dealing with bullying
- accepting other people's choices and points of view
Group Skills/ Learning Skills
- listening to group instructions
- co-operating with others
- seeking attention/ requesting a turn appropriately
- sitting appropriately
- requesting permission when appropriate
- asking for help appropriately
- accepting praise
WHY DO WE NEED TO TEACH SOCIAL SKILLS TO CHILDREN WITH ASD?
Many children (in fact, probably all children, and most adults!) have some social skills deficits. These are gaps in a child's skills or knowledge that they will eventually fill, in a more or less normal way. For example, very young normal children may tantrum, but they will 'grow out of it' eventually, when they develop more language, realise that their friends are not still tantrumming, or when their parents put in place strategies to help the child realise there are better ways to communicate.
However, social skills are a core deficit of autism, which means that there is a problem in the brain of children with autism that affects their ability to learn these skills naturally. In the tantrumming example, the child with autism is much less likely to develop awareness that this behaviour is not socially acceptable, be affected by their peers' behaviour, or change their behaviour automatically as their language develops. Also, the social skills deficits in a person with ASD are much more widespread- many areas of social skills are affected, not just one or two skills.
Sometimes parents or teachers of children with high-functioning ASD or Asperger's are surprised when we say that the child has major social skills deficits. This is because some high-functioning children are very good at hiding the problems they have. It is also because people's understanding of social skills is limited. As a rule, children with aggression are often identified as having problems, whereas children with anxiety or who are withdrawn in some situations are not. Also, the lack of emotional knowledge is often missed in children. It is truly amazing how many children in upper primary grades, who are otherwise coping reasonably well, can not identify facial expressions or reasons for basic emotions, or answer questions such as "What makes you feel happy/sad/angry?".
Some of the reasons children with ASD don't learn social skills naturally:
- social learning is a core deficit of autism
- language is essential to learning many social skills, and language is impaired to some degree in all children with an ASD
- children with ASD don't pick up on or generalise social rules as easily as other children (for example, that when someone frowns they are usually unhappy)
- children with autism don't read non-verbal cues such as body language and tone of voice as easily as other children
- children with ASD are sometimes less aware of social pressures, e.g. wanting to please others or be acceptable to others
- children with ASD often have trouble processing information, especially the large amount of information required in social situations
The Importance Of Social Skills
Why do any of us need social skills? Social skills are vital if we are to have any successful contact or interactions with any other people. Some of the parents we have met, who have children with ASD, strongly favour academic tuition over social skills, or remove their children from social situations because they are too difficult for the child.
We feel that this can be very limiting, and even damaging, to a child's potential in the future. Even traditional roles for adults with high-functioning ASD or Asperger's Syndrome, such as university researchers or IT professionals, require interaction with other people. Therefore in some ways, the more academic a child is, the more, not less important it becomes for them to learn appropriate social skills. It is extremely sad to see adults (and we have met several), who are gifted and very able in their field, but unable to keep a job because they cannot cope with the socials demands required of them, or are crippled by anxiety or anger issues. And if a child is not particularly academic, they will still find it easier and more rewarding in the future to find a job, live independently, and contribute to society if they have social skills.
In addition, many social skills impact language skills. For example, learning to take turns with a toy can help children learn to take turns in a conversation.
HOW CAN WE TEACH CHILDREN WITH ASD SOCIAL SKILLS?
Incidental Learning
Most children learn most social skills incidentally, that is, as part of normal situations. Some children with ASD also learn some skills incidentally, and their ability to do this depends on their intelligence, the severity of their autism, and the skills of the other people around them at home and school. However, this method is often very difficult for most children with ASD.
Skill-specific Learning
Most children need a little bit of additional help to learn a few skills, and parents or teachers often use rewards such as star charts, special treats and so on to do this. These strategies can also be very useful in teaching children with ASD social skills, and can be implemented by parents, teachers and others. The success of these methods for children with ASD depends on how they are designed and used, if the child is ready to learn the skill, whether the reward is motivating, and how consistently the adults apply the method.
Using Resources
There are many books and some DVDs available, which provide a step-by-step guide to specific social skills, and some children respond well to these. In addition, parents and professionals can create visual aids, such as pictures or stories to help children learn specific skills.
Individual Tuition
Some children with ASD respond very well to learning social skills with an adult, in a tutoring-type situation. This method can be used at home or school, and is usually implemented by a teacher, an aide, or another professional such as a speech therapist, psychologist, or consultant. This method is most beneficial for children who need the basic skills such as turn-taking, or who have behaviour issues that prevent them from accessing a group program at this stage. This method would usually be used to teach skills from the emotional, play skills, or conversation skills as described above. The main drawback of this method is that children don't learn to use their skills with other children during the sessions. Often children who participate in an individual program can then move on to a group program when they have developed a few vital skills.
Group Social Skills Programs
This method involves a group of children who meet for social skills instruction. There are many benefits to this method, including the opportunity for children to learn and practice their skills with other children. It is possible for almost all the skills listed in the categories above to be taught through groups, and often the groups bring unexpected advantages such as long-term friendships being formed. One possible disadvantage is that some children find it difficult to use the skills in other situations, such as at school.
There are many formats for social skills groups. For pre-school children, social skills can be taught within a music or dance session, for example (if that is the aim of the professional designing the program). For teenagers, it can be more appropriate to meet at different venues for activities, such as bowling, movies, meals out, or an internet cafe. For primary aged children, skills can be taught within an interest group (such as sports or games), or purely as a "friendship group". There are also social skills groups to deal with specific issues, such as anxiety or anger management.
In our experience, general groups are often not very appropriate for ASD children- they learn faster in an ASD-specific group. This is because, as we have already explored, children with ASD need to be taught social skills with a lot of detail and structure, and be encouraged to practice them regularly. Therefore a mainstream leisure program (e.g. dancing, cub scouts, or similar) or some of the programs offered in schools (e.g. the "You Can Do It or Bounce Back" programs), while they may benefit the child in some ways, is not a substitute for a dedicated, autism-specific social skills program that have specific objectives attached.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Travelling Autism Teachers currently offers a range of options for teaching social skills, including Individual and Group Programs. If you have any concerns about your child's social skills, please contact us for more information if you are interested in your child/student participating in one of our programs.
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