Author : Tiffany Lynn Born
Release : 2015
Genre :
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : /5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Social Skills Instruction for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders by : Tiffany Lynn Born

Download or read book Social Skills Instruction for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders written by Tiffany Lynn Born. This book was released on 2015. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although there is a push to include students with autism spectrum disorders in the general academic context, students with autism are often not fully included in the social environment of schools. Even when students with autism are in the same settings as their typically developing peers, they often have few social interactions with their peers (e.g., Carter, Hughes, Guth, & Copeland, 2005). One reason for the dearth of social interactions that students with autism have during the school day may be related to deficits in social skills which can interfere with interactions with peers. Peer networks, a type of peer-mediated intervention, have been shown to be effective in increasing the social contacts and relationships of students with disabilities. In peer networks, gains in social interactions are accomplished by providing training to general education peers who compromise a social network for the student with a disability (SWD) outside of the classroom setting. However, the literature on peer networks varies as to if specific social skills training for the SWD is included and often does not fully examine specific or even general social skills deficits of the SWD. This study examined the effectiveness of a peer network plus intervention which incorporated an explicit social skills training component within a peer network framework. Four participants with an educational diagnosis of autism participated in a 10 week peer network intervention. A social skills training component was added to the peer network systematically. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the peer network plus intervention for (a) enhancing targeted social skills of the students with autism, (b) enhancing broader social skills as measured by multiple social skill and adaptive questionnaires, and (c) increasing the number of social contacts, friendships, and interactions students with autism have in high schools. In addition, the social validity of this intervention was measured in order to determine the feasibility and acceptability for use in schools and by school personnel. Finally, the study examined the sensitivity of the Autism Social Skills Profile (ASSP, Bellini & Hopf, 2007) for use as a progress monitoring tool with these interventions. Using a multiple baseline across participants design, this study demonstrated that the social skills component of the peer network plus intervention was effective at improving the targeted social skills of all four participants. Two independent coders found Strong Overall Evidence for improvements in social skills when the social skills component was added for each participant. There was Moderate Overall Evidence for the impact of the social skills training component on the number of interactions students with autism had with their peers during the network meetings. Students with autism, peers without disabilities, and school staff interventionists all rated the intervention favorably. The ASSP was not consistently sensitive enough to detect improvements in social skills for all participants. Implications of the study, as well as limitations and directions for future research, are discussed.