The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

Many children within the autism spectrum have poor social skills compared to their typical peers. This new test increases the understanding of typical social language development and compares it to students with identified language/learning disorders, including students within the autism spectrum. This session examines the research, the standardization study results, and the comparisons of social language functioning among the groups of students in the study. It also presents training goals and objectives. How do children typically acquire social understanding?  What role does language development play?  If there is a typical development of social interaction skills, how does it compare to the development of social understanding among children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) or delayed language development?

These questions were the impetus behind the development of a standardized test instrument for social language development.  We hoped to find a model on which to base an assessment tool and discovered that there is no well recognized developmental model for children learning to get along with others.  We believed it was logical to assume that interaction skills develop along some kind of continuum that begins in early childhood and based our assumption on the observation that adults interact with others with more finesse than children.

There is evidence that social language skills develop partly through brain maturation and partly through personal experience (Carpendale & Lewis, 2006).  Children become more sophisticated in their ability to scan and interpret others’ thoughts and intentions and detect and use humor, sarcasm, persuasion, deceit, empathy, and flattery.  Through maturation and personal experience, they improve in their ability to negotiate and resolve conflict, understand others’ motives and collaborate, and to achieve mutually acceptable outcomes.  With maturation and experience, students are able to engage in complex interactions that require skills in taking someone’s perspective, masking true beliefs, and persuading others. 

We sought to develop a test instrument that would help clinicians:
. Identify students who exhibited poor social language development
. Develop IEP goals, learning outcomes, and therapy programs

A review of the literature will summarize the pertinent research about social language skills that usually develop by the time students begin kindergarten in order to shed light on the early development of social understanding.  It will also explain why peer-peer interaction was used to evaluate social language functioning.

A brief review of the results of the pilot testing will reveal:
. Skills that typically functioning students could perform appropriately and effortlessly by age six
. The process of increasing task complexity needed to effectively evaluate peer-peer interactions and peer-oriented problem-solving skills

A description of the study design will include subject demographics, an in-depth description of the subtest rationale and skills, scoring rationale and process, and the cognitive and language skills tested by each subtest.  Examples of responses from students with language/learning disorders and from students within the autism spectrum will be contrasted to the responses from typically developing peers.

A discussion of the underlying language skills needed for each subtest will be discussed and suggested techniques for teaching and improving these skills will be examined.  These skills include making inferences, interpersonal negotiations, multiple interpretations, and supporting peers.

According to the Committee on Educational Interventions for Children with Autism, National Research Council (2001), autism spectrum disorders can occur with language disorders and “educational planning must address both the needs typically associated with autistic disorders and the needs associated with accompanying disabilities.”  

In order to determine to what extent a child with autism is socially impaired due to a language disorder, it is critical to understand how children typically interact.  Children with autistic spectrum disorders should receive multidisciplinary follow-up diagnostic testing after the initial diagnosis.  The additional testing can direct teachers and family members to better understand the nature of the ASD.  Additional testing helps to clarify other factors that contribute to their student’s struggle to learn.  Most of all, appropriate testing can define specific IEP goals and therapy approaches that help students reach their full potential.

Learning Objectives: