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Effective Social Interventions and Supports for Children on the Autism Spectrum

Kids and teens with Asperger’s (AS) and High-Functioning Autism (HFA) often have difficulty understanding social situations, which can cause stress and anxiety. Social situations that seem to be most problematic include:
  • Interpreting nonliteral language (e.g., idioms and metaphors)
  • Knowing how and when to use turn-taking skills (e.g., focusing on the interests of peers)
  • Recognizing that others' intentions do not always match their verbalizations
  • Understanding facial expressions and gestures
  • Understanding the “hidden curriculum” (i.e., those complex social rules that often are not directly taught)

Even when a youngster with AS or HFA receives effective instruction in social skills, situations will arise that require “interpretation.” Unless interpreted, these situations become a source of stress and do not support future learning. However, with interpretation, perceptions of seemingly random actions can be altered into meaningful interactions. Interpretive strategies include:
  1. the Situation-Options-Consequences-Choices-Strategies-Simulation (SOCCSS) strategy
  2. the Power Card
  3. Social Autopsies
  4. Cartooning





Situation-Options-Consequences-Choices-Strategies-Simulation—

One interpretive technique, the Situation, Options, Consequences, Choices, Strategies, Simulation (SOCCSS) strategy, was developed to help AS and HFA kids with social interaction problems put interpersonal relationships into a sequential form. It helps them understand problem situations and lets them see that they have to make choices about a given situation, with each choice having a consequence. The steps of SOCCSS are:

1. Situation: When a social problem arises, the parent or teacher helps the youngster to understand the situation by first identifying:
  • who was involved
  • what happened
  • the date, day, and time of occurrence
  • reasons for the present situation

2. Options: The youngster, with the assistance of the parent or teacher, brainstorms several options for behavior. At this point, the parent or teacher accepts all of the child’s responses and does not evaluate them. This step encourages him or her to see more than one perspective and to realize that any one situation presents several behavioral options.

==> How To Prevent Meltdowns and Tantrums In Children With High-Functioning Autism and Asperger's

3. Consequences: Then the youngster and parent or teacher work together to evaluate each of the options generated. The parent or teacher is a facilitator, helping the youngster to develop consequences for each option rather than dictating them.

4. Choices: The youngster selects the option(s) that will have the most desirable consequences for him or her.

5. Strategy. Next the youngster and parent or teacher develop an action plan to implement the selected option.

6. Simulation: Finally the youngster is given an opportunity to role-play the selected alternative. Simulation may be in the form of:
  • writing a plan
  • visualization
  • talking with a peer
  • role play

The SOCCSS strategy offers many benefits to the AS or HFA child. It allows him or her to:
  • understand that many options may be available in any given situation
  • realize that each option has a naturally occurring consequence
  • develop a sense of empowerment by acting on the environment (i.e., these children realize that they have choices, and by selecting one, they can directly determine the consequences of their actions).

The Power Card—

Figure 1 - Click to enlarge
The Power Card is a visual aid that helps AS and HFA kids and teens make sense of social situations, routines, and the meaning of language. The Power Card uses their “special interests” to help them make sense of a specific situation and motivates them to engage in a targeted behavior.

In using this strategy, the parent or teacher develops a brief script written at the youngster's level of comprehension, which details a problem situation or a target behavior and its relationship to the youngster's special interest. Power Cards also provide a solution, relying on the youngster's special interest. This solution then is generalized back to the youngster. A card the size of a business card or trading card containing a picture of the special interest – and a summary of the solution – can be carried with the youngster to promote generalization.

==> Parenting System that Significantly Reduces Defiant Behavior in Teens with Aspergers and High-Functioning Autism

The Power Card can be carried in a pocket, purse, or wallet, or it can be velcroed inside a book, notebook, or locker. It also may be placed on the corner of the youngster's desk. Figure 1 provides an example of a Power Card for a 6-year-old female student with HFA who had problems focusing. Her special interest was Dora the Explorer.

Social Autopsies—

Figure 2 - Click to enlarge
This technique was created to help AS and HFA children with severe learning and social problems to develop an understanding of social mistakes. In the traditional sense, an autopsy is the examination and inspection of a dead body to discover the cause of death, determine damage, and prevent recurrence.

Similarly, a social autopsy is an examination and inspection of a social error to discover the cause of the error, determine the damage, and prevent it from happening again. When a social mistake occurs, the youngster meets with the parent or teacher to discuss it.

Together, in a non-judgmental way, they identify the mistake. Then they discuss who was harmed by the error. The final step of the autopsy is to develop a plan to ensure that the error does not occur again. Figure 2 is an example of a social autopsy worksheet.
Cartooning—
Figure 3 - Click to enlarge

The visual area is a strength for kids on the autism spectrum. Therefore, visual systems often enhance their ability to understand their environment. One type of visual support is cartooning. This strategy has been implemented by speech/language pathologists for many years to enhance their clients’ understanding.

Cartoon figures play an integral role in a number of other intervention techniques (e.g., pragmaticism, mind-reading, and comic strip conversations). Each of these strategies promotes social understanding by using simple figures and other symbols (e.g., conversation and thought bubbles) in a comic strip-like format. This visual representation of a conversation helps AS and HFA kids analyze the social exchange.

Although cartooning has limited scientific verification, some evidence suggests that learners with AS and HFA may be good candidates for social learning based on using a comic format to dissect and interpret social situations and interactions. Figure 3 provides a cartoon depicting a social interchange.


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==> How To Prevent Meltdowns and Tantrums In Children With High-Functioning Autism and Asperger's

==> Parenting System that Significantly Reduces Defiant Behavior in Teens with Aspergers and High-Functioning Autism

==> Launching Adult Children with Asperger's and High-Functioning Autism: Guide for Parents Who Want to Promote Self-Reliance

==> Teaching Social Skills and Emotion Management to Children and Teens with Asperger's and High-Functioning Autism

==> Parenting Children and Teens with High-Functioning Autism: Comprehensive Handbook

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==> Highly Effective Research-Based Parenting Strategies for Children with Asperger's and High-Functioning Autism

Problems with "Disruption of Routine" in Kids with Asperger’s and HFA

Parents' Problem-Solving Skills for Hostile Teens with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“My wife and I are struggling dealing with our angry, increasingly aggressive 14 yr old son with high functioning autism. He's now refusing to hand over his electronics at night and shouting occurs. He is testing the boundaries, of course, but physical confrontation is something we don't know how to cope with.”

Addressing hostility and aggressiveness in teens with Asperger’s (AS) and High-Functioning Autism (HFA) can be a frustrating and demanding process. The challenge for parents and teachers is to address the behavior in a constructive manner, rather than simply reacting to it.

When AS and HFA teens are exhibiting hostile behaviors, it is often a sign that they are not receiving adequate support in mastering their environments, both at home and school. In addition, their aggressiveness does not necessarily reflect willfulness, rather they lack the social skills needed to “fit-in” and to be accepted by others – especially their peers.



What makes AS and HFA teens act-out may lie in the way they process social information, including what aspects of the social environment they pay attention to, and how they interpret what they perceive. These “special needs” teens need help in altering the way they process social information so that they do not view hostility as justified or useful.

The development of an “emotions vocabulary” is an important component in addressing aggressive behaviors so that feelings can be put into words leading to social skills development, identifying feelings, fostering cooperation, emphasis on empathy, discussions of future desires, conflict resolution, and assertive communication.

If the AS or HFA adolescent is acting-out, it is irrational for parents and teachers to assume that he knows more favorable alternatives. If adults are always telling this adolescent what NOT to do, when are they telling him what he SHOULD be doing and helping him to learn how?

Why Teens with Asperger's and HFA Can Be Moody and Depressed--




 ==> Disciplinary Strategies for Asperger's and HFA Teens


Teaching Problem-Solving Skills—

Developmental deficits in cognitive processes are often associated with aggressive behavior, and social development requires mastery of cognitive and behavioral skills for communicating with others, assessing social circumstances, and resolving conflicts without aggressiveness. These skills empower AS and HFA teens to make friends and flourish socially.

Teaching problem-solving skills is useful in addressing hostility and aggressiveness in these adolescents. Below are 6 effective steps to teaching problem-solving skills. Each step requires different approaches to discovering - and linking - the missing skills in social situations.

Step 1: Help the teen to attend to social cues that are often missed or misinterpreted.

Methods: 
  • Help the teen identify his own feeling states through self-report and observation.
  • Enhance sensitivity to verbal and nonverbal social cues through games and role play, teaching the teen to identify social cues in body language and pitch of voice.
  • Have the teen make a video of his own nonverbal cues, and then have him explain his feelings on the basis of cues demonstrated in the video (e.g., hand gestures, facial expressions, voice intonation, and other indicators of social intent).

Step 2: Help the teen to assign meaning to social cues. This step is necessary because hostile teens commonly interpret neutral interactions as threatening – and then respond defensively. Unlike “typical” teenagers, AS and HFA teens do not intuitively know how to exhibit socially acceptable behavior, and the level of their required assistance depends on the social supports they have previously encountered.

Methods: 
  • With the help of videotapes of social encounters, the teen should be taught to identify the sources of the problems and the feelings of participants with emphasis on correctly identifying friendly and neutral – as well as hostile – intent on the part of others.
  • The teen should learn to identify and classify social cues by friendly, neutral, and hostile categories of intent. The teen can practice by assuming the roles of his peers in disputes.

Step 3: Help the teen to define goals that enhance social relationships with an awareness of the consequences of behavior.

Methods: 
  • Brainstorming example: The teen is rewarded for having ideas about goals for various situations. Goals can be rated as to whether they are likely to enhance or damage interpersonal relationships with peers.
  • The teen should be given opportunities to practice identifying and fitting pro-social goals to various situations.

 ==> Disciplinary Strategies for Asperger's and HFA Teens

Step 4: Help the teen to develop ideas about how to respond to each social circumstance he encounters. This step is necessary because compared with “typical” teens, AS and HFA teens identify fewer alternatives and seem unaware of the various options that may be open to them when confronted by a social problem. These “special needs” teens need help identifying their options and possible outcomes (this is why constantly telling them what they are doing wrong does not increase the likelihood of improved future performance).

Methods: 
  • Help the teen to develop skills to control arousal and to generate behavioral responses in which anger and use of force are only two of many response possibilities.
  • Help to increase the teen’s skill in identifying alternatives to the use of force to solve social problems.

Step 5: Help the teen to assess likely outcomes of potential responses and to select a response that can be initiated given the limitations of the situation. Compared to non-hostile teens, hostile ones tend to evaluate pro-social responses less favorably. Thus, they are not behaving a certain way to purposely hurt those around them, rather they are simply making decisions based on social skills deficits.

Methods: 
  • Evaluation of each alternative: The teen should be given opportunities to discuss likely gains and losses associated with each identified alternative in specific social situations.
  • Like goals, gains may be described as short and long term, material and social, or affective and concrete.
  • In addition to benefits, look at costs (i.e., negative outcomes) of each alternative.

Step 6: Help the teen to implement a response. This step is where a teen with hostile tendencies joins a group, negotiates deals, offers and/or receives positive feedback, and bargains for the exchange of social opportunities by implementing a strategy from previous steps. Practicing this step will be intimidating and challenging for the AS or HFA teen. Any attempts – successful or not – should be praised and reviewed to identify areas of strength as well as need for improvement.

The development of problem-solving skills includes the AS or HFA teen as a contributor in planning and execution. Thus, be sure to include his input in all the steps listed above. The methods described are something you are doing WITH the teen, rather than TO him. Addressing hostility in these “special needs” young people demands an understanding of their perspective. Any approach to correcting hostility that does not include the teen himself is not going to have long-term benefits.

Behind every behavioral problem is a skill deficit – and a need to acquire that skill. Identifying with whom, over what, where and when behavioral problems occur will highlight specific circumstances so that appropriate problem-solving skills can be taught. Including the teen in the plan to address his aggression and hostility is allowing him to be assertive in a positive way; it gives him a sense of control that is often craved when he is lacking a skill and acting-out aggressively.
 

 

My child has been rejected by his peers, ridiculed and bullied !!!

Social rejection has devastating effects in many areas of functioning. Because the ASD child tends to internalize how others treat him, rejection damages self-esteem and often causes anxiety and depression. As the child feels worse about himself and becomes more anxious and depressed – he performs worse, socially and intellectually.

Click here to read the full article…

How to Prevent Meltdowns in Children on the Spectrum

Meltdowns are not a pretty sight. They are somewhat like overblown temper tantrums, but unlike tantrums, meltdowns can last anywhere from ten minutes to over an hour. When it starts, the Asperger's or HFA child is totally out-of-control. When it ends, both you and your child are totally exhausted. But... don’t breathe a sigh of relief yet. At the least provocation, for the remainder of that day -- and sometimes into the next - the meltdown can return in full force.

Click here for the full article...

Parenting Defiant Teens on the Spectrum

Although Aspergers [high-functioning autism] is at the milder end of the autism spectrum, the challenges parents face when disciplining a teenager on the spectrum are more difficult than they would be with an average teen. Complicated by defiant behavior, the teen is at risk for even greater difficulties on multiple levels – unless the parents’ disciplinary techniques are tailored to their child's special needs.

Click here to read the full article…

Older Teens and Young Adult Children with ASD Still Living At Home

Your older teenager or young “adult child” isn’t sure what to do, and he is asking you for money every few days. How do you cut the purse strings and teach him to be independent? Parents of teens with ASD face many problems that other parents do not. Time is running out for teaching their adolescent how to become an independent adult. As one mother put it, "There's so little time, yet so much left to do."

Click here to read the full article…

Parenting Children and Teens with High-Functioning Autism

Two traits often found in kids with High-Functioning Autism are “mind-blindness” (i.e., the inability to predict the beliefs and intentions of others) and “alexithymia” (i.e., the inability to identify and interpret emotional signals in others). These two traits reduce the youngster’s ability to empathize with peers. As a result, he or she may be perceived by adults and other children as selfish, insensitive and uncaring.

Click here
to read the full article...

Highly Effective Research-Based Parenting Strategies for Children with Asperger's and HFA

Become an expert in helping your child cope with his or her “out-of-control” emotions, inability to make and keep friends, stress, anger, thinking errors, and resistance to change.

Click here for the full article...