The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

This session describes a unique opportunity for a partnership between a professional organization, Kennedy Krieger Institute, and a community-based organization, the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Children with autism participated in a multifaceted social-cognition, social communication, and educational inclusion program in which they learned skills in a clinic-based setting and then applied the skills in the community. Additionally, the children participated in specially designed educational activities which were correlated to the Maryland state educational standards, in order to support educational development. Social cognitive impairment seriously compromises the ability of school-aged children with autism to establish friendships, have fulfilling experiences in community-based recreational contexts, and even to succeed academically. While interventions are often conducted to remediate this area, children with autism typically have greater difficulty generalizing the skills learned during intervention onto other settings. Despite this, research has suggested that the majority of social skill interventions are conducted at clinic-based sites or as pull-out services in schools. However, recent research on social skill interventions has indicated the effectiveness of those interventions which promote greater skill maintenance and generalization by including opportunities to practice skills in an ecologically-valid context. Interventions which include ecologically-valid opportunities to practice skills as a part of the group curriculum often take place in the child’s classroom. However, these types of interventions can also be applied to recreational and other community activities. Since children with autism experience difficulty in becoming involved with their community, often due to their social impairment, the promotion and practice of social cognition skills in a community environment may increase their ability to utilize the community and participate in outside activities. In addition, particular community activities could be utilized which serve to potentially enhance academic functioning as well, through the incorporation of academic themes which fulfill state educational standards.

We conducted a multi-site intervention for high-functioning children with autism spectrum disorders, 6-8 years of age, focusing on development of social cognitive, communication, and academically-relevant functioning. This project created a unique and rich partnership between two specialists in autism (a clinical psychologist and special educator) at the Center for Autism and Related Disorders at the Kennedy Krieger Institute and specialists in education, exotic animal science, and public display from the National Aquarium at Baltimore. Students with autism participated in a unique 12-week multifaceted social and educational program that taught social-cognition skills within a clinical setting and then applied these skills in a community setting (the National Aquarium in Baltimore). The thematic framework for the intervention was exotic animals (birds, reptiles, and dolphins), with which the students interacted during their visits to the aquarium. This enabled us to simultaneously develop and enrich social and communication functioning as well as science concepts that are coordinated with the state educational standards in order to enhance social and academic success at school. Two groups, each with four participants, were implemented (n=8). Pre- and post-intervention assessment was completed in order to determine increases in quality of social understanding, social interaction, social awareness, and social communication. Feedback on the participants’ and their family members’ experience in the intervention was also obtained. Exploratory measures of academically-relevant knowledge related to our science curriculum were also completed.

In order to ensure the sustainability of this program and increase the probability of future programs, the group facilitators also provided training (instruction and in-vivo modeling and practice) to university student assistants who assisted with the intervention delivery within the clinic and aquarium settings as well as to the aquarium staff, who provided the unique and interactive educational programs involving the animals. The effectiveness of this training will also be presented.

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