Action Research On Autism Spectrum Disorder

Social interaction is defined as “a process of reciprocal stimulation and response between two people. It develops competition, interaction, influences social roles and status, and influences people in development of social relationships.” (What is SOCIAL INTERACTION) By adolescence most individuals are fairly competent at social interaction and have a general understanding of what is required of them in most social situations. For high functioning autistic children, this is far from the case. Simple interactions between themselves and others can be confusing and difficult to navigate without proper adaptive training in social behavior. In the following sections, we will explain the need for this training, how it is implemented, and the

The interviewee's child was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder when he was just 2 years old. The child had been enrolled in the public school system since he was able to attend school. The types of classroom settings have been majority of self-contained classrooms, however, in kindergarten he attended a regular education classroom. Currently, his placement is in a self-contained Autism classroom. The family comes from a middle socioeconomic background. Furthermore, the behavior analyst has worked with all types of families and children from many different socioeconomic

Autism is categorized by deficits in maintaining social relationships and difficulty communicating. The number of children being diagnosed with autism is steadily increasing. Therefore the need incorporate effective interventions that focus on the development of the individual child has become an imperative component for their success. The key for children with Autism to achieve academic and social success depends upon the collaborative effort that is shared among all parties involved: family, teachers, peers; mental health professionals and the community.

The immediacy and complexity of the school/parent relationship within the context of autism demands a more intimate, in-depth method of inquiry. Designed as "insider" research, the researcher had been the tutor for the selected

The topic I chose to research for the final project of this quarter is Autism, this paper is geared towards early childhood educators, children and families who are coping with ASD. I have included resources for children and their families, and also included strategies and ideas in working with young children with ASD in the classroom. Starting, with the definition of Autism, which is also called Autism Spectrum Disorder, is a serious developmental disorder that impairs the ability to communicate and interact. Autism is a developmentally disability that involves delays within, speech, social skills, language and behavior. Children left untreated with ASD, can suffer from not developing social skills and may not learn to behave appropriately, very few children recover completely from autism without any intervention. There are a wide variety of treatment options that can be very helpful for children and their families with ASD. Autism Spectrum Disorder impacts the nervous system, common symptoms include difficulty with communication, social interactions, obsessive interest and repetitive behaviors. Early interventions, behavioral, educational, and family therapies can help reduce symptoms and support development and learning. Early signs of autism spectrum disorders may consist of, the ability to read at an early age but often without understanding what it means, may not cry if in pain or seem to have any fear, may be very sensitive or not sensitive at all to smells, sounds,

There is a wide range and much controversy surrounding the study and overall effectiveness of different interventions for children and adolescents possessing a diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, regardless of the method of intervention, every intervention shares the common goal which focuses on improving functioning in one or a combination of the following areas: social, communication, behavior, and academic. Social functioning includes interaction with peers and others, engagement and appropriate participation in activities, while communication refers to goals of “effectively signaling information to a social partner” i.e. utilizing and recognizing aspects of communication such as requesting, labeling, expressive language, speech, pragmatics, etc. (Missouri Autism Guidelines Initiative, 2012). With respect to the behavioral domain of treatment, effective intervention seeks to result in an increase of individuals engaging in the positive, adaptive skills to respond to a situation, person, or environment. Finally academic refers to skills that are required for success with school activities (Missouri Autism Guidelines Initiative, 2012). Focus in these areas of functioning assists in guiding treatment goals and provides a guideline of what to measure in order to gauge the effectiveness of treatment.

Social interaction and communication skills are important when it comes to learning in the classroom. Students with autism may have been delayed in communication at an early age, and this delay may have delay cognitive development. Conferring to the research of J. E. Ormrod (2012), teachers use adapted instructional materials to aid students with special needs to assist them in a general education classroom (inclusion); moreover, “teachers should expect to have students with a wide variety of special needs in their classrooms at one time or another” (Ormrod, 2012, 4).

Often children with autistic spectrum disorder are omitted from mainstream classrooms or have limited interactions with their typical learning school mates possibly due to the extra time and energy it takes teachers to manage the anti-social behaviors often associated with the disorder. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is often identified by the impairment of the ability to form normal social relationships, by the impairment of the capability to communicate with others, and by repetitive behavior patterns. People with ASD are prone to resist or easily anger at changes in their daily routine. Since they often lack or avoid eye contact, prefer to be alone and don 't often recognize social cues, ASD

The topic of investigation for this paper is effective techniques for helping students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) succeed in school. Communication and socialization were the two areas of focus. If students with ASD are helped in these two areas, the likelihood of success in school increases. With ASD increasing, literature reviews with effective techniques can assist school personnel in selecting the best options for students with ASD in less time than completing formal research. This is a topic of interest to me, because of two reasons. One reason is my work

Children with high-functioning ASD (HFASD) demonstrate difficulty initiating and maintaining conversations, deciphering how others feel from nonverbal cues, interpreting the intentions of others, asking/responding to questions, and interacting in games or other activities (Bray et al., 2010). Children with HFASD may appear insensitive, and self-centered, or socially disinterested (Waugh & Peskin, 2015); and typically demonstrate average cognitive abilities, yet have significant social deficits (DeRosier et al, 2010). Social skills interventions aim to teach children the social pragmatics necessary to interact and build relationships. There are many different treatment options to improve social skills in children with HFASD such as social skills groups, social skills training with parent implemented intervention, and social stories/social narratives (Cappadocia & Weiss, 2011). This literature review will discuss these three different interventions used for improving the social skills of children with HFASD. All of the articles that were looked at were peer-reviewed.

The strengthening of social aptitude in people with autism was explored through an acting seminar in Ohio, hosted by a highly regarded psychologist, Kelly Hunter. People from the area were invited to attend the seminar to become further aware of the social dysfunction in people with autism. By working on facial expressions, Hunter was helping the autism community learn how to recognize and use social cues in a standard environment. If more people become willing to take time such as this to enhance their knowledge on autism, our society could possibly fund new research projects to better understand individuals with autism (Makin).

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is the name given to describe a wide range of behaviors amongst the autistic population Children with autism are less able to interact with the world as other children do. Normally they have shortfalls in four key ranges: verbal, non-verbal correspondence, social mindfulness, and connections.” (This is one of the disorders that can either be recognized right away in a child, take a long time to diagnose, or might not even be noticeable; the lack of diagnosis can also become a negative issue in an autistic person’s life. Because this disorder is fairly common, and can be devastating should a child have ASD but remain undiagnosed, public schools should train their teachers and staff to recognize autism and its symptoms. There are many students that are being failed rather than receiving the help required to help these kids succeed. Many in the general public as well aren’t informed of what autism is, and can be judgmental towards these kids without understanding why these kids act the way they do. People need to be educated about this disorder.

Children with autism spectrum disorder present many challenges in the inclusive classroom. Characteristics of these students include socially withdrawn and socially inept. They are likely to exhibit behavior problems, including temper tantrums, stereotypic behavior, and/or aggressive behavior. Students with ASD can learn with the premise that instruction be explicit, and include a full range of social, self-help, language, reading, writing, and math skills.

The data was gathered by using a focus group methodology combined one to one interviews for the student with Autism. The purpose of using two methods of data collection is based on the action research study design, which takes a series of quick looks at different times in a variety of ways (Johnson, 2012). By using focused groups to collect data, insight is gained on the different perspective of multiple stakeholders on to how to build a comprehensive transition plan that will carry students with ASD starting secondary school into adulthood (Kucharczyk et al., 2015). In addition focus groups use people with similar characteristic who engage in a deliberate discussion about a particular topic . Furthermore the focus group methodology used will help to identify key issues and themes in areas that has limited data gathered (Fontana & Frey, 1994).

To encourage the development of social skills students are encouraged to interact with one another throughout the day in a variety of methods, including partner work, small group activities, and large group activities. These teaching techniques enable autistic children to relate to their peers. As autistic children relate to their peers more they are more accepted and in turn continue to learn and acquire new and improved social skills.