Colleges and universities are experiencing increased enrollment of students diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). These students often demonstrate difficulties in social situations, such as interacting with peers or understanding social cues. As a result, students diagnosed with ASD can seem socially awkward and engage in inappropriate behaviors in social contexts. Currently, there are few studies that examine social skills interventions for college students diagnosed with ASD. A well-established intervention for addressing social skill development is video-self modeling (VSM). Until now, VSM research has focused on primary and secondary students, without investigating this intervention's effects on the social skills of individuals in the postsecondary setting. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of VSM on social skills for individuals diagnosed with ASD in postsecondary settings. In this study, we examined the effects of VSM on social skills (i.e., social initiations, eye contact, and pausing) using a multiple baseline design across therapists and a multiple baseline design across participants with generalization probes. Results demonstrated high levels of response to VSM for three participants compared to baseline conditions, and moderate response for the fourth participant. / text

No description available.

Behaving in a socially competent manner (i.e., interacting with other social actors in an effective manner by adjusting one’s goals and behaviours according to the demands of various social situations) is a complex process that requires various cognitive skills. The purpose of the current study was to determine the unique contributions of executive functions, theory of mind and verbal skills to socially competent behaviours in either a cooperative or a competitive context. The impact of manipulating children’s perspective-taking (e.g., taking the perspective of another person) on their socially appropriate behaviours was also investigated. Pairs of children completed a cooperative and a competitive social task together and were assigned to either focus on their own or another’s perspective. Children then completed measures of executive functioning, theory of mind, and verbal skills. Results revealed that executive functioning was related to more appropriate social behaviours in the cooperative task, even when controlling for theory of mind and verbal skills; however, this relation was not found in the competitive task. Furthermore, there was no significant effect of the manipulation of perspective-taking on children’s behaviours. These findings indicate that executive functions make a unique contribution to children’s socially competent behaviours in a cooperative social context.

The current study focused on whether an academic and behavioral remediation summer day camp increased the social skills of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). The camp implemented applied behavior analysis (ABA) to address behavior interfering with developing social skills and to increase appropriate social skills. Currently, few studies document the effectiveness of improving social skills at a summer camp program for children with ASDs. This study utilized a pre-post analysis for all participants to compare changes in social skills, as measured by the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) and the Home and Community Social Behavior Scales (HCSBS). The measures were completed by the mothers the week before the camp commenced and again during the last week of camp. Significant positive differences between pre- and post- camp response scores were found among social communication, social competence, and peer relations subscales. A significant negative difference was found on autistic mannerisms, antisocial behavior, and deviant/disruptive behavior subscales. This study suggests that an intensive summer camp program utilizing ABA can improve social skills in children with ASDs. / Department of Special Education

The purpose of this study was to implement and assess the efficacy of a novel social skills intervention (First Friends; Graham, 2000, 2006) on improving social cognitive skills, social behaviours, and executive functions in an early childhood population of children from socioeconomically disadvantaged areas. Early school years are a critical developmental period to intervene to facilitate social competency and reduce problem behaviours. Children from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds are at-risk as many suffer from behavioural problems and begin school without the social maturity and behavioural regulation skills needed to succeed in an academic environment. First Friends is an 8-week preventive intervention designed to promote critical areas of social-emotional development including problem solving, conflict resolution, planning, identification of emotions, empathy, assertiveness, anger management, verbal communication, creativity and cooperation. In addition to examining intervention effects, another goal for this study was to examine the mediational role of improvements in different latent EF components (i.e., working memory, inhibition, set-shifting/mental flexibility) on intervention outcomes. Executive functions (EF) have been linked to social-emotional competence. The First Friends program teaches social skills that are suggested to require EF to learn, as well as implement, during social interactions. The social skills taught and practiced also utilize overlapping brain pathways. Therefore, the First Friends intervention was hypothesized to impact both social-emotional functions and EF, given that 1) EF appears to be required in learning and developing several social and emotional skills, and 2) brain pathways utilized in carrying out these functions overlap. Eighty-seven kindergarten children (41 controls, M = 5.42 years; 46 intervention, M = 5.40 years) from socio-economically disadvantaged areas of the Greater Victoria region in B.C. participated in this study. Children's EF and social-emotional and social-cognitive skills were assessed and their social skills and behaviours were rated by parents, teachers, and observers before and after the intervention. Results provided support for the efficacy of the intervention with children who participated in the intervention demonstrating significantly stronger socio-emotional and social cognitive abilities, more prosocial behaviours, and less negative behaviours compared to a control group. Parent and teacher reports did not reveal significant changes. In addition, significant intervention effects on working memory and set-shifting/mental flexibility were found. Contrary to hypotheses, intervention effects were not revealed for inhibition. In addition, none of the EF latent constructs were found to mediate intervention outcomes. Overall, the First Friends program shows promise with regard to improving both social and executive functioning skills, and continued research and implementation with this program is warranted. These findings highlight the importance of not only assessing for social outcomes, but also examining the development of other cognitive processes that appear to be involved in social development. The results of this study can facilitate understanding of the scope of social intervention outcomes on cognitive processes and guide the selection and implementation of effective prevention programs with early childhood populations in the future. / Graduate

No description available.

Since the time of Bryan's (1974) seminal work on the social status of children with learning disabilities (LD), research has consistently shown that children with LD struggle to earn social acceptance from non-LD peers. Recently, investigators have uncovered within-group variability among children with LD suggesting that some children with LD are well accepted and even popular among non-LD peers. An appeal in the field of learning disabilities has emerged, calling for a shift from deficit-model research focusing on the deficiencies of children with LD, to the investigation of how children with LD obtain positive social outcomes. Accordingly, a study was undertaken addressing this request by examining the characteristics of peer-accepted children with LD from a multi-rater and multi-method perspective. Using the comprehensive model of social competence proposed by Vaughn and Hogan (1990) as the theoretical framework, data were gathered from teachers, peers, and peer-accepted children with and without LD in important areas of social functioning. Participants were grade four and five mainstreamed students meeting the following criteria: (a) having a researcher-identified learning disability in at least one academic area (reading, spelling, or arithmetic) and (b) peer-rated social acceptance as determined via a modified version of the Asher and Dodge (1986) sociometric classification system. Statistical analyses consisted of multivariate and univariate techniques. Findings indicated few significant differences between peer-accepted children with and without LD in specific areas of social competence as rated by peers. Significant interactions, however, between LD status and gender revealing variable profiles of social-behavioural characteristics for boys and girls with and without LD did emerge from the perspective of teachers. Implications for special education referral and placement, inclusive education, and interventions are discussed.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Diss. Karlstad : Karlstads universitet, 2007.

Thesis (M.S.)--Auburn University, 2007. / Abstract. Includes bibliographic references (ℓ. 61-71)