The importance of peer mediation in the social functioning of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

2020 ◽  
Vol 594 (9) ◽  
pp. 41-50
Author(s):  
Ewelina Młynarczyk-Karabin

The aim of the article is to indicate the role of peer relationships in the functioning of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and to indicate the potential possibilities of establishing interaction with a peer group. Peer mediation is one of the principles that apply to intervening with students with ASD. It is based on the involvement of peers as social skills trainers and mentors of a student with autism. Through the interaction, peers learn ways to involve a child with ASD in collaborative activities that they initiate themselves or that are planned by their teacher. The basic types of peer mediation include: Integrative Play Groups, Colleague Mentor, Peer Group and Group Oriented Approach. Supporting students with ASD through peer mediation is a method that has been shown to be effective in research. It has a positive effect not only on the development of children with ASD, but also on children with typical development. The implementation of mediation in the peer group is a great opportunity for children with ASD to reduce the risk of being rejected by their peers, and in the future to establish friendships between children.

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 372-381
Author(s):  
Patricia E. G. Bestelmeyer ◽  
Bethan Williams ◽  
Jennifer J. Lawton ◽  
Maria-Elena Stefanou ◽  
Kami Koldewyn ◽  
...  

Several recent studies have demonstrated reduced visual aftereffects, particularly to social stimuli, in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This putative impairment of the adaptive mechanism in ASD has been put forward as a possible explanation for some of the core social problems experienced by children with ASD (e.g., facial emotion or identity recognition). We addressed this claim in children with ASD and typically developing children by using an established methodology and morphed auditory stimulus set for eliciting robust aftereffects to vocal expressions and phonemes. Although children with ASD were significantly worse at categorizing the vocal expressions compared with the control stimuli (phoneme categorization), aftereffect sizes in both tasks were identical in the two participant groups. Our finding suggests that the adaptation mechanism is not universally impaired in ASD and is therefore not an explanation for the social perception difficulties in ASD.


Medicina ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (8) ◽  
pp. 440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan DiPietro ◽  
Arpad Kelemen ◽  
Yulan Liang ◽  
Cecilia Sik-Lanyi

Background and objectives: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience challenges with social interactions, a core feature of the disorder. Social skills therapy has been shown to be helpful. Over the past several years, computer-assisted and robot-assisted therapies have been infiltrating the social skills teaching environment. Rapid progress in the field of technology, especially in the robotics area, offers tremendous possibilities for innovation and treatment or even education for individuals with ASD. This paper’s purpose is to drive awareness of these innovative interventions in order to support the social lives of children with ASD. The aims of the paper are identifying (1) the types of Information Technology platforms that are being evaluated in computer and robot-assisted therapies for children with ASD; (2) the various disciplines or professions studying and utilizing these computer and robot-assisted social skill therapies; (3) the outcomes being evaluated in each trial; and (4) if results demonstrate benefits to children with autism. Materials and Methods: PubMed, CINAHL, Science Direct, and Web of Science databases were searched for clinical trials published over the past five years. Search terms incorporated the subject intersection of autism, and computer or robot-assisted therapy. Results were mined for pediatric populations only and study designs establishing controlled comparisons. Results: Eighteen unique international studies were identified that utilize robot interventions (11 studies) and serious computer game interventions (seven studies). Most demonstrated promising results in improving outcomes for children with ASD. Study implications reveal a rapidly evolving assistive technology for ASD social skills therapy. Conclusions: These interventions show considerable promise, but more effectiveness and cost effectiveness research of high quality should be carried out with larger numbers of children. Also, further studies are necessary to evaluate these technologies’ effectiveness amongst adults with ASD and within unique subsets of the higher functioning autism population.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 2156-2162

Technology-assisted intervention has potentials in improving the social, communication and behavior impairments in of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Augmented reality (AR) offers multitude of possibilities and opportunities for the intervention of children with ASD. Therefore, this study identifies 13 researches from 2012 to 2018 that documented the efficacy of augmented reality applications in supporting the intervention of children with ASD. This study reviews the applications of augmented reality that nhanced the intervention for children with autism in (i) social skills, (ii) communication skills, and (iii) behavior skills. The conclusion reports the significant roles of augmented reality as technology-assisted intervention for children with ASD.


2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 37-47
Author(s):  
Lyn G. Litchke, PhD ◽  
Mary Margaret Bracken, MSRLS-TR

This qualitative collective case study explored the social-emotional benefits of Drumtastic Ability Beats® in a dyadic partnership between children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and a college graduate student (GS). Fourteen male campers, ages 5-14, engaged in eight, 1-hour Drumtastic Ability Beats® sessions, twice a week, at a 4-week camp for children with ASD. Data collection focused on observational narrative field notes completed by the campers’ GS partner after each session. Thematic analysis revealed three primary themes: (1) familiarization through synchronization, (2) creative self-expression, and (3) self-regulation of emotions. These findings underscore the potential value of group drumming as a means to promote opportunities to enhance social-emotional regulation through facilitating relationships for children with ASD.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 232-255
Author(s):  
Huso Yi ◽  
Queenie K. Y. Siu

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can benefit from greater social integration through positive peer relationships. The study aimed to understand children’s views toward autism as well as experiences of interactions between children with ASD and typically developing (TD) peers. After ethnographic observations in a mainstream primary school educating diverse students, interviews were conducted with 10 students with ASD and ten of their TD peers using open-ended and vignette questions about three hypothetical scenarios set in varied contexts: a classroom, a birthday party, and a public setting. Narrative analysis focused on how the children constructed their experiences in response to these vignettes. Children with ASD frequently experienced isolation in peer interactions. While their TD peers favored interactions with those with ASD, believing that their behaviors of concern are extrinsic and their intentions must be good, their lack of understanding of ASD and of social skills that could be used to facilitate more positive interactions could result in unintended harm and exclusion. Early school-based intervention would assist in increasing the acceptance of neurodevelopmental differences and diversity.


2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Paynter ◽  
Marleen F. Westerveld ◽  
David Trembath

The social-communication and behavioural difficulties experienced by children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are well documented in the research literature; however, relatively little attention has been paid to their commonly experienced reading difficulties. In this article, we synthesise the findings of the research to date and provide practical recommendations for school psychologists and counsellors tasked with assessing and supporting children with ASD who experience reading difficulties. Central to these recommendations is the need for comprehensive multidisciplinary assessment tailored to each child's needs, at all times avoiding common assumptions regarding literacy and learning in children with ASD.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abbas Bakhshipour ◽  
Majid Mahmood Aliloo ◽  
Hassan Shahrokhi ◽  
Toraj Hashemi ◽  
Shahrokh Amiri ◽  
...  

Autism is a pervasive neurodevelopment disorder, primarily encompassing difficulties in the social, language, and communicative domains. One of the most common social cognitive theories of autism is based on theory of mind (ToM), the “mentalizing” ability needed to infer that others have their own beliefs and desires in order to understand their behavior. In the current study, this hypothesis was tested using Wellman and Liu's scaled ToM tasks. These were employed in the assessment of ToM development of verbal, school-aged high-functioning boys with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The results indicated that children with ASD performed significantly worse than normal children on ToM tasks (Z=4.7; P<0 .001). However, it was shown that some of the ASD children were able to pass desire and false-belief tasks whereas none of them could succeed in knowledge and real-apparent emotion tasks.


Author(s):  
Christina O’Keeffe ◽  
Sinéad McNally

AbstractChildren with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience social communication difficulties which can be compounded by increased social demands and expectations of the school environment. Play offers a unique context for social communication development in educational settings. This systematic review aimed to synthesize play-based interventions for the social communication skills of children with ASD in educational contexts and identified nine studies. Overall, studies in this review provided a promising evidence base for supporting social communication skills through play in education for children with ASD. The review also highlighted gaps in research on play-based interventions for the social communication skills of children with ASD within naturalistic educational settings.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirko Uljarević ◽  
Thomas W. Frazier ◽  
Booil Jo ◽  
Jennifer M. Phillips ◽  
Wesley Billingham ◽  
...  

Impairment in social motivation (SM) has been suggested as a key mechanism underlying social communication deficits observed in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, the factors accounting for variability in SM remain poorly described and understood. The current study aimed to characterize the relationship between parental and proband SM. Data from 2,759 children with ASD (Mage = 9.03 years, SDage = 3.57, 375 females) and their parents from the Simons Simplex Collection (SSC) project was included in this study. Parental and proband SM was assessed using previously identified item sets from the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS). Children who had parents with low SM scores (less impairments) showed significantly lower impairments in SM compared to children who had either one or both parents with elevated SM scores. No parent-of-origin effect was identified. No significant interactions were found involving proband sex or intellectual disability (ID) status (presence/absence of ID) with paternal or maternal SM. This study establishes that low SM in children with ASD may be driven, in part, by lower SM in one or both parents. Future investigations should utilize larger family pedigrees, including simplex and multiplex families, evaluate other measures of SM, and include other related, yet distinct constructs, such as social inhibition and anhedonia. This will help to gain finer-grained insights into the factors and mechanisms accounting for individual differences in sociability among typically developing children as well as those with, or at risk, for developing ASD.


Author(s):  
Simona Zalyte-Linkuviene ◽  
◽  
Vytautas Zalys ◽  

The emerging of digital technology not only encourages the development of new tools but also changes traditional approaches to solving emerging problems. The sound, music, art and colour that prevailed in the 20th century forms of therapy are being replaced by integrated systems that overcome many of these forms thanks to digital technology. With the increasing number of people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the world, such systems provide new opportunities for the educating of such persons. The article presents an interactive tool for the education of children with ASD using audio, video and computer technologies and assesses its potential impact. The aim of this study is to evaluate an interactive instrument developed for the education of children with ASD. The methodology of qualitative research was applied. Following the objectives of ensuring the interactivity of the process, provoking all perceptions of the subject and developing the subject's ability to respond to the environment a personalized audio-visual environment was created. The study was conducted on one subject and a case study method was used. The particularly rapid development of computer technology has transformed a computer from a device consisting of a keyboard and screen into a device that makes all our senses responsive ‒ sound, image, interactivity and real-life simulation. Interactive video projections further highlight the possibilities of combining these media. The opportunity to manage and to participate in such interactions becomes a great opportunity to learn about the world and make personal contact with it, especially for children with ASD.


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