No description available.

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the nature of social skills in socially anxious children from a social learning theory perspective. The reasons why socially anxious children often perform poorly in social situations have not yet been fully resolved. Is it due to lack of social skills or are these children too inhibited and nervous in social situations to exhibit the skills they possess? Ninety-two elementary and middle school children (age 10-14 years) in Kopavogur, Iceland participated in the study and completed questionnaires on social phobia and anxiety, social skills, assertiveness, and self-efficacy and outcome expectancy in social situations with friends and strangers. Based on how socially anxious they reported to be on the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI-C), 59 children were selected for further study. Results showed that socially anxious children reported being less socially skilled, less assertive with strangers than with friends, and lower in self-efficacy and outcome expectancy than children in a normal comparison group. However, the socially anxious children were not rated as less skilled by parents or teachers than the other children. Implications for the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with social anxiety are discussed. / Master of Science

Difficulties in social skills are generally considered defining characteristics of High-Functioning Autism (HFA). These difficulties interfere with the educational experiences and quality of life of individuals with HFA, and interventions must be highly individualized to be effective. I explore ways technologies may play a role in assisting individuals with the acquisition of social problem solving skills. This thesis presents the design, development, and evaluation of two systems; Refl-ex, which is a collection of multimedia instructional modules designed to enable adolescents with HFA to practice social problem solving skills, and REACT, a system to facilitate the authoring of a wider variety of instructional modules. The authoring tool is designed to help parents, teachers, and other stakeholders to create Refl-ex-like instructional modules. The approach uses models of social knowledge created using crowdsourcing techniques to provide the authors with support throughout the authoring process. A series of studies were conducted to inform the design of high-fidelity prototypes of each of the systems and to evaluate the prototypes. The contributions of this thesis are: 1) the creation of obstacle-based branching, an approach to developing interactive social skills instructional modules that has been evaluated by experts to be an improvement to current practices; 2) the development of an approach to building models of social knowledge that can be dynamically created and expanded using crowdsourcing; and 3) the development a system that gives parents and other caregivers the ability to easily create customized social skills instructional modules for their children and students.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

No description available.

This case study research was conducted to determine if three moderately priced iPad apps could assist children with autism in the area of social skill development. Five participants from Grades 6-12 were selected for this study. The researcher met with each participant three times. After being given a demonstration, each participant was observed using the apps and then asked questions relating to their experiences using them. The researcher and participants discussed the themes of the apps to determine whether the participant comprehended the social situations that were presented. The results of each case study varied based on the cognitive abilities of the participant. All participants had success with at least one app and indicated that they would continue using the apps in the future. More research is needed to determine the true potential of the iPad as a tool for children with autism to enhance their social skills. / May 2016

Man-Chi Leung. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1989. / Bibliography: leaves 34-39.

Context: This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of a training programme for enhancing the social skills of children in Libya who have autism. This study takes into account the fact that there are similar services in Libya that are addressing the social and educational needs of children with autism however these remain in the early stages of development and are making little progress, largely because of the lack of robust knowledge and understanding that exists around autism by policy makers, the general public and organisations. Consequently, this study is intended to act as a basis for gaining a greater understanding about how such services could be more effectively developed in Libya. This study is particularly unique in that it gives considerable attention to the cultural specifications to see if such programmes can be implemented and adapted to fit the needs of families in Libya. Libya has been chosen as the site for this research for three main reasons: first of all because it is my country of origin and therefore holds a special place in my heart; second because it is an interesting context manifesting the various barriers and challenges to social change due to myths and misunderstandings; and third because I know many children whose life chances and opportunities have been reduced only because their guardians, carers and other professionals did not understand their conditions and did not see their abilities. As a Libyan, I want to contribute to this field of knowledge and practice to ensure that children will have access to equal opportunities to their non-autistic counterparts. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine whether the training programme, which was designed by the researcher, is effective in improving the social skills in children with autism in Libya. Method: Data was collected from two questionnaires and programme evaluation sheets (SST). The sample comprised of thirty-four children with autism, aged between ten and fifteen years of age. The children were divided into two groups of thirteen; one as the experimental group and the other as the control group. The programme ran for eighteen weeks. The researcher assessed the children’s social skills before, during and after it was completed. During the first twelve weeks (or the implementation stage), the researcher met the children for 30 minutes three times a day. Results: At the start of the training programme (pre-test stage), there were no statistically significant differences in the mean scores of social skills between the experimental and the control groups in the pre-test stage. As the training went on, the mean scores increased and showed statistical significance (post-test stage) between the experimental and the control group in the direction of the experimental group. After 8 weeks of terminating the training and in the follow up measurement of the experimental group’s social skills, there was a statistically significant difference between the experimental and the control group in their respective social skills in the direction of the experimental group. Conclusion: It was concluded, therefore, that the training programme had significantly improved the social skills of children with autism in Libya and it should be implemented on a wider basis. Training programmes from other parts of the world can be made culturally relevant and effective with appropriate adaptations. Key Limitations: This study was conducted on a small sample group (34 children in total) in only one part of Libya (Benghazi). Further, the sample group was of a particular age group (under 15 years).

Past studies have indicated that home-schooled children perform above average in measures of achievement but these studies failed to include an assessment of social skills and failed to include samples of both home-schooled and traditionally-schooled students preventing a direct comparison between these two groups. The purpose of this study was to fill this research gap by addressing the following research questions: (1) Are there significant differences in academic achievement of home-schooled and traditionally-schooled high school students? The Economic Theory of Public Administration of Schooling suggests that home-schoolers will perform academically at least as well as traditional-schoolers; and (2) Are there significant differences in social skills levels of home-schoolers and traditional-schoolers? Social Learning Theory suggests that children learn positive social interaction from other children. The participants were high school students drawn from an ethnically and socio-economically diverse suburban area in the Lancaster and Bakersfield, CA area. A MANOVA was conducted to compare academic achievement and social skills of home-schoolers and traditional-schoolers. Statistical results indicated that there were no significant differences between the two groups in academic achievement but did indicate that students who were home-schooled score significantly lower in social skills than students who are traditionally-schooled. The positive social change implications of this study center on the need to attend to the socialization opportunities for students who are home-schooled. Parents who home-school or are considering home schooling will be able to use this information in planning their children's education and social interactions with other students.