[Source: Best Practice Autism]

Impairment in social communication and interaction is a core feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Social skills deficits include difficulties with initiating interactions, maintaining reciprocity, taking another person’s perspective, and inferring the interests of others.  Unfortunately, many children with ASD do not receive consistent and intensive social skills programming in school. This is problematic, especially considering social impairments may result in negative outcomes, such as poor academic achievement, social failure, isolation, and peer rejection, which often leads to co-occurring (comorbid) anxiety and depression.

Because social skills are critical to successful social, emotional, and cognitive development and long-term outcomes, best practice indicates that social skills instruction should be an integral component of educational programming for all children with ASD. Research evidence suggests that when appropriately planned and systematically delivered, social skills instruction has the potential to produce positive effects in the social interactions of children with ASD. Both the NationalProfessional Development Center on Autism (NPDC) and the National Autism Center (NAC) have identified social skills training/instruction as an evidence-based intervention and practice. Social skills training is typically offered as small-group instruction with a shared goal or outcome of learned social skills in which participants can learn, practice, and receive feedback. These interventions seek to build social interaction skills in children and adolescents with ASD by targeting basic responses (e.g., eye contact, name response) to complex social skills (e.g., how to initiate or maintain a conversation).

Read the Rest of this Article on Best Practice Autism