Social communication in children and adolescents with ASD can be enhanced through the use of a groupwork intervention addressing social interaction and understanding.

Social interaction and understanding in autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) are key areas of concern to practitioners and researchers alike. However, there is a relative lack of information about the skills and competencies of children and young people with ASD who access ordinary community facilities including mainstream education. In particular, contributions by parents and their children have been under-utilized. Using two structured questionnaires, 19 children with ASD reported difficulties with social skills including social engagement and temper management and also reported difficulties with social competence, affecting both friendships and peer relationships. Parents rated the children's social skill and competence as significantly worse than did the children themselves, but there was considerable agreement about the areas that were problematic. Using an informal measure to highlight their children's difficulties, parents raised issues relating to conversation skills, social emotional reciprocity and peer relationships. The implications for assessment and intervention are discussed.

A longitudinal study of continuity and progression in children's early education reported the significance of the transition from preschool to elementary education for later school success. It was found that the nature of this particular transition is influential for children, parents and educators and therefore for the educational system. An ecological framework was used in order to embrace the complex nature of educational transitions.Educators in 8 preschool and 4 primary school settings, and their managers, were interviewed to explore beliefs about early education. The same educators were observed as the 28 focus children in a cohort of 150 children were tracked during their final year before school and their first year of school, and their written documentation including planning and reports were scrutinised. It was found that despite the similar language used by early educators in early years preschool and primary settings to describe their intentions and motivations for children, there can be major discontinuities between settings, relationships, pedagogy and curriculum and that consequently there are increased challenges for children and for their parents and educators. It is proposed that educators need to collaborate more and to move on from a shared use of terminology to shared meanings, in order to develop a shared conceptual framework which attends to cognitive, social and emotional aspects of children's learning in transition.Certain measurable elements of school progress were noted as part of the local authority's value-added record keeping and it has been possible to make links between educational attainment and other variables. The cohort of children is now entering the last year of primary school education and a number of focus children will now be involved in a study of their transition to secondary education.

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