Developing social skills and understanding

These go together because social skills cannot be applied unless an individual knows when, where and how to apply them. This is the core area of difficulty for learners with ASD. Teaching social skills without understanding will result in mere training so that the skill may not be applied beyond a few rigid settings. Speech and language therapists may have a role in training and demonstrating to staff ways of developing social skills within the school.

Learners with ASD will find it difficult to take turns in conversation or play or consider the needs of others, and thus may appear selfish but we must not make the mistake of believing that this is their intention. It is not. They will need to be taught social skills to cope with the playground and other social demands such as working in groups. Social skills can be taught using games in small groups that include children who can model the appropriate behaviors. These might take the format of circle time and be based on the Social Use of Language Program by Wendy Rinaldi (1992) or Alex Kelly’s (1994) Talkabout which is aimed at older learners. It is, however, important that social skills should be taught alongside social understanding so that the skills are not learned in isolation.