TITLE:
Promoting Social Interactions and Responses to Peer Initiations of a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder
AUTHORS:
Kazuki Niwayama, Junko Tanaka-Matsumi
KEYWORDS:
Autism Spectrum Disorder, General Education Class, Social Interaction, Social Skills Training
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.7 No.6,
June
21,
2016
ABSTRACT: The purpose of this case study was to
promote the social interaction and responsiveness to peer initiations of a
child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The study was conducted during the
school recess at a Japanese elementary school. A child with ASD in a special
needs education class and three peers in a general education class
participated. Following a pre-assessment, we contrived joint playtime for the
child with ASD and her peers. We then introduced a social skills training
component at the beginning of each playtime for both the child with ASD and her
peers. During the pre-assessment, no social interaction was observed for the
child with ASD. After contriving the joint playtime, the social interaction
between the child with ASD and the peers was observed. Conducting the social
skills training further increased the social interaction and improved the
responsiveness to peer initiations. To evaluate generality of the intervention
effects, we observed the social interaction of the child with ASD when she
participated in the inclusive general education class. We also observed her
on-task behavior in the general education class to see whether her performance
in the class improved after the intervention. Both her social interaction and
her on-task behavior increased after the intervention. Implications for future
study are discussed.