Date Presented 03/27/20
Adolescents with ASD have difficulties initiating social interactions, which affects their peer engagement. This study aimed to identify features of missed social initiation (initiations receiving no response) in adolescents with ASD and typical development (TD). We observed social initiations of 11 students (ASD = 6; TD = 5, 6th to 7th grade) in an inclusive after-school club. Participants’ missed social initiations and their recipients, purposes, and types were analyzed.
Primary Author and Speaker: Yu-Lun Chen
Additional Authors and Speakers: Kristie Koenig
PURPOSE: Social participation is an essential area of occupation related to health and wellbeing. However, individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have difficulties initiating social interaction, which challenges their social participation. Adolescent students with ASD in inclusive education face extreme social challenges as the complexity of social demands increases. To better understand their social challenges, this study aimed to explore the features of missed social initiation (initiations receiving no response) in adolescent students with ASD and typical development (TD) in a naturalistic inclusive setting. The research questions were: (1) what are the features of missed social initiations of students with ASD, in terms of their recipients, purposes, and types? (2) How are missed rates of different social initiations of students with ASD compared with TD?
DESIGN: This mixed method descriptive study investigates missed social initiations in teenage students with ASD and TD. We observed student interactions in an after-school STEM learning club in an urban public middle school. All students in the club were invited and consented to participate. Participants were 11 students (six with ASD and five with TD) either in the sixth or seventh grade. Students with ASD were verbally fluent and with cognitive abilities at or above average.
METHOD: We video-recorded 15 club sessions (45 mins for each) and extracted video clips of free activities for analysis by excluding teacher instruction sections. Based on the selected videos and verbatim transcriptions of students’ conversations, we observed social initiations made by all participants. Each social initiation of the participants was coded by their purpose (social or functional), type (seeking, sharing, attending, offering, and joking), and the recipient (ASD, TD or more than one recipient), and whether the initiation yielded the recipient’s response (responded or missed). Chi-square tests were conducted to examine whether the ratio of responded and missed initiations of different purposes, types and recipients were similar between students with ASD and TD.
RESULTS: During the observation, 28% of social initiations made by students with ASD were missed by peers. Most of the missed initiations were made toward more than one peer (54%), followed by toward a peer with ASD (24%) and TD (19%). Initiations based on social purposes were more frequently not responded (36%) than those with functional purposes (21%). Among different types of initiations, sharing was most frequently not responded (41%), followed by sharing (21%), offering (20%), attending (18%), and joking (17%).
Compared with TD students, students with ASD showed an unexpected lower rate of missed initiation (28% in ASD vs. 39% in TD, p=0.02). Interestingly, initiations by TD students were more frequently missed by students with ASD than those by students with ASD (24% in ASD vs. 49% in TD, p<0.001), which may imply a more successful interaction within students with ASD than across groups. Missed rates of each type of social initiation in students with ASD were similar to students with TD.
CONCLUSION: This study examined unsuccessful social initiation among students with ASD and TD. Missed social initiations in students with ASD were mostly not toward a specific peer and with a social purpose and a nature of sharing personal thoughts and opinions. The result suggests that students with ASD may have difficulties directing their desire of socialization to interactions between dyads. The higher rate of missed initiation in TD students toward students with ASD implies a gap between neurotypical and neurodivergent socializations. Future research and intervention to facilitate mutual understanding across the two groups are needed.
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