Aides' and Teachers' Perceptions of Social Skills In Relation to Perceived Relationships In Elementary-Aged Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Background: Little is known about the social skills repertoire of fully-included children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Inclusion is an increasingly common practice; many children with ASD now are placed in settings with general education teachers and neurotypical peers (Kasari, et al., 1999). Little is known about the social functioning of these children in this setting. Preliminary research indicates that they have poorer teacher-student relationships than their peers (Robertson, Chamberlin, & Kasari, 2003) and are often on the periphery of their classroom social networks (Chamberlain, Kasari, & Rotheram-Fuller, 2007). This study adds to this small body of literature by examining the social functioning of included children with ASD as measured by classroom aides, teachers, and peers.

Objectives: A newly-developed Social Skills Q-Sort (SSQ) was used to measure classroom aides’ and teachers’ perceptions of children’s social skills. Associations between the SSQ and teacher-student and peer-peer relationships in children with and without ASD were examined.

Methods: Twenty-one children with ASD were recruited from 19 classrooms in six elementary schools in Los Angeles. These children were fully included in regular education classrooms for 80% or more of the school day and averaged 6.7 years old. Another 270 typically developing children (mean age 6.3) from the target children’s classrooms participated. A subset of 21 of these children, matched on age, gender (86% male), grade, and classroom were compared with children with ASD. Seventeen classroom aides and 19 teachers participated. Teachers completed the Student Teacher Relationship Scale (Pianta, 2001) for children with ASD and the matched sample; aides and teachers sorted the SSQ for both groups of children; children with ASD and their classmates completed the Friendship Survey.

Results: Children with ASD had significantly poorer teacher-student relationships than their peers (p<.0001), marked by more conflict (p=.004) and less closeness (p=.004) and poorer social network centrality ratings (p<.0001). Separate linear regressions were conducted to determine whether aide or teacher-reported SSQs predict children’s teacher-student and peer-peer relationships. Aide-reported SSQs predicted children’s overall teacher-student relationships (p=.01) and dependency (p= .001) while teacher-reported SSQs significantly predicted children’s overall teacher-student relationships (p=.01), conflict (p=.04), and dependency (p=.01). Teacher-reported SSQs also predicted children’s social network centrality (p=.01), but aide-reported SSQs did not.

Conclusions: Data from this study were gathered from multiple sources, including children with ASD, his/her peers, classroom aides, and teachers. This study extends our current understanding of social skills in elementary school-aged children with and without ASD and how these social skills affect relationships with teachers and peers. Since the social lives of children with ASD are very complicated, a better understanding of children’s abilities is critical in informing developmentally appropriate interventions for this population. Future studies should carefully consider the impact of stable negative teacher-student and peer-peer relationships over time on children's academic and social success and consider intervention programs that include children with ASD, their teachers, and peers.