As I consider my sons main issues as a 3.5 yo, the desire to be a "social being" is, to me, his greatest deficit. His language is coming along nicely, his sensory issues are diminishing, but he has zero interest in other children. I can prompt him all day long to go up to another child and say something, but he'll never do this on his own. As I speak to friends with ASD kids that are 5 and 6, this still continues to be their greatest challenge.
The things that cause us to want to be social (ie an intrinsic sense of wanting to connect with others) seems to be missing for so many of our kids. There are studies that say social skills groups dont work because kids cant generalize the behavior. I totally get that, but what other options exist?
For those of you who now have ASD kids that can and want to interact with other kids- how did they get there? Was there a defining moment(s)?
Is the social piece ever a 'delay' rather than a 'disorder' and does this desire to connect with other children ever happen on its own?
I agree with Karrie that alot of our kids need to be taught to be social. I
however do believe that social groups work. Here is an excerp from an
agency I am considering for my son at the moment. So much of social is
non verbal ques and being aware of what is happening in any given
moment.
Reciprocal play actions & promoting imitation skills
Children on the autism spectrum often have difficulties with social
referencing, coordination and imitation skills. Despite this, skill teaching
in this area is seldom part of a home 1:1 ABA program. Teaching these
chains of skills should be an important part of a child’s program.
Here are home strategies to try!.
Non-verbal imitation chains
Phase 1: Expanding nonverbal imitation & attention:
Begin with 1-step imitation tasks. After a few success, chain two motor
imitation tasks together, then reinforce. Repeat, mixing up imitation
tasks, being careful not to make a predictable chain, to truly create an
observation/imitative situation. Reinforce
Continue, increasing to three steps. Note that as you increase the number
of tasks, you are also beginning to thin your reinforcement schedule, if
you have thus far been on a continuous reinforcement schedule
(reinforced every direct instance). If this thinking schedule affects your
imitation rates, spend time interspersing a one-step imitation task as you
build up to 3 steps.
Phase 2: Repeat above, moving up to a chain of at least 10 actions.
Reinforce. Teaching imitation chains can be helpful for increasing
attention skills, social referencing skills, as well as future learning for
chains of behaviors.
Phase 3: Repeat above, using different actions, locations and people.
Phase 4: Add in imitation to peers
Have your child practice with peers; “Look Kelly, do this” with another
peer.
~Expand, add in verbal sounds: car goes Vroom, or comment to
others “Look at me”, etc.
Phase 5: Switch & coordinate
At this point, you want your child to watch and play and copy some of the
actions the other peer is doing, and then being a leader and showing
some of their skills. This may be too advanced, and other play skills and
being the leader skills may need to come into play first. Determine what
you need and begin your next teaching steps there.
Reciprocal games
Strategy 1: Ball roll/ball pass
Use other objects/activities to build in and expand joint attention. Start
by sitting on the floor with the child, feet touching (or closer as needed)
and teach (using prompt hierarchy as needed) the child to roll the ball to
you, and receive you rolling the ball.
~Expand: adding in distance. Slowly back up further and further from the
child. If needed have a prompter behind the child to teach the child to
look and roll.
~Add in language: child says, “Go” and you roll the ball. You say, “Go”
and child rolls the ball.
~Generalize: use different balls, different locations (inside/outside), and
move so as at slight angles from the child.
~Add in toys: roll cars & trucks back and forth; have races with these cars
and trucks.
~Add in another person, so the ball gets passed between three people
(you may need to start off close again-feet touching- and add in
distance).
Strategy 2: Moving to rhythm
Teach this 1:1 and generalize to a small group
Teaching rhythm: tell a student “do this” and clap. Clap twice. Clap three
times. Prompt the students as necessary to imitate.
Expand: change rhythm: clap, slap knees. Clap, slap knees, and clap.
Child imitates rhythm
Expand: add in slow, incremental additions to the rhythm patterns
Expand: stand up, and add in stomping and body movements
Expand: play music, and put on a “concert” for someone
Strategy 3: Rhythm & music
Pass out rhythm sticks to your student, and have them simply imitate and
follow along with you clapping the sticks together, or tapping the sticks
on the floor, switching back and forth as you do.
~Expand: your rhythm patterns. Clap your sticks fast, then slow,
having your student imitate along with you.
~Expand: Clap your sticks fast, then slow, then fast on the ground,
then slow on the ground, watching you and moving back and forth
between the different methods of tapping and different speeds.
~Expand: Tap specific rhythms, such as tapping 4 times, then
stopping, with your student having to listen and count how many times
you did it, then imitating. Switch from the floor to tapping sticks, etc.
Strategy 4: Silent Simon Says
Play your basic Simon Says game. You say “Simons says touch your head”
and you model the skill with the student. Next, move towards “Silent
Simon Says. Tell your student you are going to be a Silent Simon Says,
and they have to watch and imitate 10 of your actions. If they get 7 of
them correct, they win! (As your student becomes proficient, increase this
to 80%, then 90%, etc, shaping the behavior of looking up to watch &
imitate).
Strategy 5: Do This Funny Face
Start with an adult in charge, sitting down. Tell your student you are
going to make some really funny faces, and they will change without you
telling them. Tell them there will be 10 changes. If they watch and copy
70% of your funny faces, they win! (As your students become proficient,
increase this to 80%, then 90%, etc, shaping the behavior of looking up to
watch & imitating).
~Expand: change the pace from fast to slow, etc. with your face changes.
~Expand: move to a group.
Strategy 6 : Do This Crazy Move
Start with an adult in charge and have the adult act “crazy”, dancing,
jumping around, singing. Have your student watch and imitate your
actions. Tell them there will be 10 changes. If they watch and copy 70%
of your actions, they win! (As your student becomes proficient, increase
this to 80%, then 90%, etc, shaping the behavior of looking up to watch &
imitate).
~Expand: change the pace from fast to slow, etc. with your face changes
~Expand: move to a group
Strategy 7 : I’m in Charge
Put an adult in “charge” as the boss for a designated period of time and
they are to do 5 things that are whatever they like- play certain toys,
dance, read a book, etc. Your student must do what the adult does- if
your students join in and do at least 4 of the 5, they win! And they have a
turn to be boss. (Next, shape your behavior to 5/5 to win).
Put a student in “charge” as the boss for a designated period of time and
they are to do 5 things that are whatever they like- play certain toys,
dance, read a book, etc. Your students must do what they do- if your
students join in and do at least 4 of the 5, they win! And they have a turn
to be boss. (Next, shape your behavior to 5/5 to win).
With adam he is very social with his peers. He loves playing with other children his age. Being social is so much more than just playing or having interest in other children or people. With Adam it has a lot to do with social behaviors or understanding of situations etc. For instance...he had to be told to turn in his homework. The other children that are NT just KNEW to turn it in. Not only that...they were excited to turn it in so that they could be praised for doing such a good job. Adam seems uncaring about getting praise most of the time. It is social awarenesses like this that my son has the biggest deficit in. There are SOOOO many of these things that happen daily in life. Things that will have to be taught one at a time.