Peer Engagement and Autism: Strategies and Tips

Children with autism have deficits in language and social skills. They tend to keep to themselves, and find it difficult to interact with others. Social skills are important for work and independent living. They include non verbal skills such as eye contact, body language, physical proximity, and also verbal skills such as initiating a conversation, ending a conversation, asking questions etc. Here are some ideas and strategies on peer engagement and autism that can be used to improve social skills.

Peer Modeling:

Initially a lot of autism social skills interventions were adult initiated. However, it has been observed that when children with autism are around regular peers they tend to imitate some social behaviors and pick up social skills. Thus an inclusive classroom is a great place to start teaching social skills to children with autism.

Teaching Peers to Interact with Children with Autism

Other children in the classroom can be educated about autism, and can be encouraged to interact with autistic children. Class- wide interventions which include the non disabled peers have been found to be more effective than interventions specific to children with autism.

Social Skills Groups

Social skills groups have been found to be effective for children with autism. Social skills groups focus on teaching social skills like initiating conversations, body language, simple conversation etc. Some of the areas that have been covered in different studies are increasing proximity during play, increasing social initiations, increasing social communication, showing appropriate affective behavior and engaging in symbolic and socio dramatic play. Social skills groups must be short, and allow time for children to practice skills.

Social Stories

Social stories are a visual aid that can be used to teach social skills. Social stories can focus on any one small component of social behavior. Teaching social skills through social stories results in an increase in peer interaction.

Play Groups

Play groups provide a non competitive and comfortable opportunity for children with autism to practice social skills that they have learned. Children can be observed, and feedback about their social skills can be given. Play groups coupled with social skills training can be a very effective strategy to improve peer interaction.

Role Play:

Role play refers to acting out various social situations in a safe and controlled setting. The child with autism acts out a response in a social situation. The teacher may give feedback, and encouragement based on his performance. Role play will enable a child to gain confidence and to practice social skills. It is usually used in social skills groups.

Children with autism need your encouragement and support to be able to interact confidently with their peers. For more resources on autism social skills, read this.

References:

Debra Kamps, B. L. (1992). Teaching Social Skills to Students with Autism to incease peer interactions in an integrated first- grade classroom. Jornal of Applied Behaviour Analysis , 281- 288.

Kathy Thiemann, H. G. (2001). Social Stories, Written Text Cues and Video Feedback: Effects on social communication of children with Autism. Journal of applied behaviour analysis , 425- 446.

Volkmar, F. R. (2007). Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.