Effects of a Social Skills Intervention among High School Students with Intellectual Disabilities and Autism and Their General Education Peers

Abstract

Incorporating general education peers into social skills instructional programs has been effective at increasing social interaction of high school students with intellectual disabilities and autism with their classmates. In this study, communication book use (Hughes et al., 2000), combined with providing the opportunity to interact, was associated with increases in conversational initiations and responses of five high school students identified with intellectual disabilities and autism and their general education peers. We also addressed a limitation of Hughes et al. (2000) by expanding the role of peers during generalization to (a) engage in conversational interactions that were more reciprocal and typical of high school student dyads and (b) provide support to participants while interacting. This study adds to the few published social skills interventions involving high school students with intellectual disabilities and autism in inclusive settings and extends findings to a population of students with more varied communication characteristics.

Improving Socialization for High School Students with ASD by Using Their Preferred Interests

“…Research has documented that without systematic social intervention, adolescents with ASD can exhibit limited or nonexistent initiations toward typical peers (Hughes, Golas, Cosgriff, Brigham, Edwards, & Cashen 2011), difficulty maintaining engagement with typical peers (Humphrey, & Symes, 2011), a general lack of social competence around typical peers (Stichter, Randolph, Gage, Schmidt, 2007; Knott, Dunlop, & Mackay, 2006), and an overall difficulty appropriately participating in social activities with typical peers (Orsmond, Krauss, & Seltzer, 2004). …”

Increasing Social Interaction Skills of Secondary School Students with Autism and/or Intellectual Disability: A Review of Interventions

“…A trainer then rewarded correct self-and peermonitoring with praise and a tangible reward. Hughes et al (2011) replicated this study with five high school students with intellectual disability-three who had autism and one who had Fragile X Syndrome. Participants first were taught by researchers to follow the steps of a task analysis to use the recreational item followed by instruction to appropriately engage a peer in social interaction with the item.…”

“…Researchers described some or all participants as rarely initiating to or engaging in social interaction with peers across 10 studies (Gaylord-Ross, Haring, Breen, & Pitts-Conway, 1984;Haring & Breen, 1992;Hughes, Harmer, Killian, & Niarhos, 1995;Hughes, Killian, & Fischer, 1996;Hughes et al, 2000Hughes et al, , 2002Hughes et al, , 2011Nientimp & Cole, 1992;Plienis et al, 1987;Scattone et aI., 2006) and engaging in limited eye contact across nine studies (Davis et al, 2010;Gaylord-Ross et aI., 1984;Haring & Breen, 1992;Hughes et al, 1995Hughes et al, , 1996Hughes et al, , 2000Hughes et al, , 2002Hughes et al, , 2011Plienis et al, 1987). All participants in Davis et al (2010) and Bock (2007) and one of five in Hughes et al (2011) were reported to engage in perseverative speech on topics such as weather, cartoon characters, or space travel.…”

“…In seven studies (Bock, 2007;Davis et aI., 2010;Gaylord-Ross et aI., 1984;Hughes et aI., 2002;Morrison et aI., 2001;Plienis et aI., 1987;Scattone et aI., 2006), peers served as interaction partners but did not receive instruction on their expected role during interaction either prior to or during generalization sessions. In addition, Hughes et al (2000Hughes et al ( , 2011 instructed peers on communication book use, including verbalizing the question on a communication card when a participant with limited speech pointed to its corresponding picture. Instructions included telling peers to greet and praise participants for correct responding (Nientimp & Cole, 1992), teaching peers to initiate interaction and prompt and record participant responses (Haring & Breen, 1992), and instructing peers to respond but to limit their initiations to allow participants maximum opportunity to initiate conversation (Hughes et aI., 1995(Hughes et aI., , 1996(Hughes et aI., , 2000.…”

“…In the remaining six studies, researchers provided instruction to peers prior to interacting with participants. Hughes et al (2011) also instructed peers to expand on topics introduced by participants in order to produce more reciprocal conversation. In addition, Hughes et al (2000Hughes et al ( , 2011 instructed peers on communication book use, including verbalizing the question on a communication card when a participant with limited speech pointed to its corresponding picture.…”