The Critical Importance of Social Skills for Children with Autism

Social interaction comes easily for some children. Through innate intuition and learned behaviors, they pick up on social cues, norms, and subtle communication from a very young age. For children on the autism spectrum, however, social skills do not develop as intrinsically. These children often need direct teaching, ample practice, and ongoing reinforcement to learn the nuances that make up social interaction and communication.

Studies have shown that children with underdeveloped social skills are more likely to feel isolated, have difficulty communicating, and struggle to build meaningful relationships. Social skills deficits can also contribute to bullying and teasing from peers.

But when children on the spectrum receive tailored instruction, ample modeling, and opportunities to practice, a world of positive change is possible. Targeted support in social competency allows children with ASD to better:

·      Initiate conversations and interact with peers

·      Pick up on social cues like tone of voice and body language 

·      Regulate emotions and behavior in group settings

·      Develop meaningful friendships and feel connected with others

·      Communicate ideas, wants, and needs effectively

·      Gain confidence and feel comfortable participating in social environments

As parents, educators and therapists, we all play a pivotal role in prioritizing social engagement for children on the autism spectrum. With time, consistency, and compassion, these children can gain the awareness and abilities to interact, communicate, and form meaningful relationships.

Understanding Core Social Skills

Social skills are the tools that enable us to successfully interact, communicate, and connect with other people. For children with autism, explicit teaching in social competency makes these vital skills attainable.

Some of the foundational social skills children should develop include:

Conversational Skills

·      Making eye contact when speaking and listening

·      Taking conversational turns (listening, responding)

·      Initiating greetings and conversations with peers

·      Using facial expressions and tone of voice to help communicate

·      Asking and answering questions appropriately

·      Staying on topic during conversations

·      Ending conversations politely

 Emotional Skills

·      Identifying emotions in themselves and others

·      Expressing feelings and needs verbally

·      Regulating emotions and behavior

·      Coping with feelings like anger, anxiety, disappointment etc. appropriately

·      Showing empathy, care, and concern for others

Relationship Building Skills

·      Playing cooperatively with peers

·      Sharing toys, materials, experiences

·      Taking others’ perspectives into account

·      Joining groups and participating in activities with peers

·      Compromising in conflict situations

·      Developing friendship skills like reciprocity

Social Awareness Skills

·      Reading facial expressions and body language

·      Interpreting tone of voice (humor, sarcasm, excitement etc.)

·      Understanding idioms and figures of speech 

·      Following social rules and norms amongst peers

·      Adapting behaviors based on the social situation

Mastering this social skill set helps children with autism pick up on nuances, reciprocate socially, regulate emotions, and feel comfortable engaging with peers. With increased social awareness and abilities, they can navigate childhood and beyond with confidence.

The Challenges of Social Skills Deficits

Without targeted support, children on the autism spectrum often face considerable challenges:

Difficulty Initiating Interaction

Many children with ASD struggle with starting conversations or joining groups of peers. They may want to engage but don’t know how to enter a conversation or introduce themselves. This can stem from skills like making eye contact, reading social cues, or fear of rejection.

Trouble Maintaining Back-and-Forth Communication

Reciprocal conversation requires taking turns, listening and responding appropriately, and staying on topic. Children with autism may interrupt frequently, monopolize the conversation, or struggle to interpret subtle social cues. These roadblocks make fluid, natural dialogue difficult.

Misinterpreting Social Cues and Subtleties

Children on the spectrum tend to take words and actions very literally. Abstract language like sarcasm, idioms, and humor often go over their heads, as do subtle nonverbal cues. This creates confusion and misunderstandings.

Difficulty Regulating Emotions and Impulses

Many children with ASD experience emotional outbursts or meltdowns in social settings due to feeling overwhelmed. They may also blurt out comments impulsively without considering social appropriateness. These behaviors further isolate them from peers.

Inability to Develop Meaningful Friendships

Friendships require reciprocity, compromise, and the ability to pick up on social nuances. For children lacking core social skills, building strong interpersonal relationships with peers can be extremely challenging.

Without instruction in social competency, these obstacles dramatically impact the quality of life. Children on the autism spectrum feel isolated, anxious, and unable to effectively communicate. Their disability becomes a roadblock to participation and inclusion.

The Benefits of Targeted Social Skills Instruction 

The good news is that social skills can be taught. Unlike neurotypical peers who intuitively pick up on social intricacies, children with ASD need direct teaching through evidence-based techniques like roleplaying, social storytelling, etc.

With time, consistency, and opportunity for practice, tailored social skills instruction allows children on the spectrum to master the intricacies of social interaction and communication.

The benefits are immense:

·      Increased social awareness and intuition

·      Ability to read facial expressions, body language, and social cues

·      Knowing conversational norms like taking turns and reciprocity

·      Capacity to regulate emotions and impulses 

·      Skills to initiate, join, and maintain social interactions

·      Confidence and ability to develop meaningful friendships

·      Feeling comfortable and engaged in group learning activities

·      Reduced anxiety, isolation, teasing, and bullying

·      Preparedness for future school, career, and life social demands

Strong social skills pave the way to inclusion, independence, and fulfillment across childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.

Strategies to Support Social Skills Growth

Families, therapists, and educators all play an invaluable role in advancing social skill development. Some of the most effective strategies include:

Social Skills Groups

Small group instruction focused on building specific social competencies allows direct teaching and guided practice with similar peers. At Ascent Autism, we offer customized social skills groups tailored to everyone's needs. Our highly trained therapists work with small groups of individuals with autism to target social skills development in areas like conversational skills, emotional regulation, conflict resolution, developing friendships, and more.

Each social skills group is specially designed to help individuals gain competency in their particular areas of challenge. By participating in our social skills groups, individuals with autism can experience directed teaching, guided practice, and peer modeling to attain the social awareness and abilities critical for communication, relationship building, and overall well-being.

Visual Tools

Visual aids like social stories, comics, lists, and charts provide concrete examples of appropriate social behavior. They demonstrate real-world scenarios in a simple, memorable way. At Ascent Autism, our therapists regularly incorporate visual tools into sessions to support social skills development. For example, they may use engaging social stories to model proper conversational skills and emotional regulation. Picture charts are created to help children understand and appropriately interpret facial expressions and body language. Visual schedules and timers are implemented to improve transitions and turn-taking. These and other visual supports are tailored to each child's needs, providing memorable cues and reinforcing social competency during our sessions. Our use of customized visual tools helps children on the spectrum better understand social nuances so they can generalize these pivotal skills in their daily lives.

Role Playing

Practicing social skills through role play helps children apply concepts. Adults can model interactions first, then guide the child through realistic scenarios. Provide positive feedback on successes. At Ascent Autism, our therapists incorporate role playing into many therapy sessions as an engaging modality for building social competency. Children are guided through a variety of role play scenarios tailored to their specific social skills goals. This interactive social skills practice in a safe environment helps reinforce target behaviors. Our experienced therapists utilize role playing as one effective strategy to help children with autism gain confidence and ability to interact positively with others.

Observation and Reinforcement

Observe the child in natural settings and praise appropriate social behaviors like taking turns, compromising, listening and responding. Reinforce these positive interactions. At Ascent Autism, our therapists incorporate observation and reinforcement techniques into the sessions to encourage social skills development. We observe the children during conversational activities, group discussions, roleplaying, and more. Positive behaviors like making eye contact, regulating emotions, taking turns, and building on peers' ideas are highlighted and praised. Our therapists also offer parents guidance on using observation and reinforcement strategies at home. Noticing and positively reinforcing good social skills throughout the child's day helps solidify newly learned behaviors. We empower parents and educators to act as additional facilitators of social competency through consistent observation, praise, and recognition of appropriate social interaction skills in natural environments.

Peer Mediated Instruction

Neurotypical peers can model and reinforce target social skills in play and learning activities. Teachers oversee structured opportunities for peer interaction. At Ascent Autism, we recognize the benefits of peer modeling and integration. If peers are interested and families are comfortable, we will selectively incorporate neurotypical children into our online social skills groups. Having positive peer role models provides natural opportunities for children with autism to observe and practice age-appropriate social interaction. Our therapists strategically structure activities that foster the modeling of target social behaviors like conversational turn-taking, sharing ideas, cooperation, and more. Neurotypical peers are coached on how to engage patiently and provide reinforcement. This peer integration promotes observational learning and generalizable social competency in a safe, guided environment.

There is no universal approach that works for every child with autism. Each child has unique strengths, challenges, and ways of learning best. As parents, educators, and therapists, we must closely observe the child, identify approaches that work, and then provide consistency across environments. By tailoring the instructional methods to each child's needs, we can unlock social competency. With Ascent Autism’s support, the children progressively gain the skills to communicate, forge relationships and participate actively in the social world around them.

Feb 28, 2024

Hye Ryeon Lee, PhD

Hye Ryeon is a neuroscientist with over 10 years of experience studying Autism Spectrum Disorder, including at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She has published numerous papers on the mechanisms of autism in journals such as Nature, Science, and Nature Neuroscience.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hyeryeonlee/