Posted By Dan Swearingen on August 21, 2009

While being introverted and liking time alone is very common for people with ASD that does not mean they have no desire for friends or social interaction. When they do actually want social time with peers they can find it particularly awkward and stressful.

AP Science Writer Alicia Chang has posted a great article today:  Autistic teens master social cues, find friends about a program that focuses on teaching autistic teenagers “social scripts” they can follow to interact more effectively with peers.

For Andrea, this pizza date is the ultimate test.

The bell rings. The door opens. Can she remember what she needs to do?

More important, will she make a friend?
Even for socially adept kids, the teen years, full of angst and peer pressure, can be a challenge.

“A lot of our kids need a tune-up. They need new skills to help them survive in their new social world,” said clinical psychologist Elizabeth Laugeson of the University of California, Los Angeles, who runs a 3 1/2-month friendship program for high-functioning autistic teens like Andrea.

In our work at Autistry Studios our approach is to start with each student’s creative interests and launch appropriate independent projects with groups of no more than four students. Over time the students learn about what the other students are doing, talk and help each other with the instructors only facilitating and modeling appropriate interactions and providing hints when the students are suffering any form of miscommunication.

The students become extremely comfortable with the format and while a student certainly could work an entire session without talking to anyone but an instructor — they ALWAYS gravitate to each other and talk about their interests and show each other what they are doing.

Through successful experience with more “adult” work-like, college-like situations we see the students gain the confidence to apply for jobs, try out some college courses, and also be more handy around the house.

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This entry was posted by Dan Swearingen on Friday, August 21st, 2009 at 9:24 am and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.