Exploring the Social and Academic Engagement of Included Children with ASD

Background:  In inclusion classroom settings, children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) typically show improvements in their social interactions, and the ability to generalize learned social skills (Carr & Darcy, 1990; Harrower & Dunlap, 2001).  However, inclusion alone does not predict reciprocal social relationships (Orsmond, Krauss, & Seltzer, 2004).  High-functioning children with ASD are more often neglected and rejected by peers, have poorer quality friendships, and experience more loneliness (Bauminger & Kasari, 2000; Kasari et al., 2012; Ochs, Kremer Sadlik, Solomon, & Sirota, 2001; Rotheram-Fuller et al., 2010).  

Objectives: The current study seeks to determine classroom variables that may facilitate the development of meaningful social relationships for children with ASD in inclusion classroom settings.  

Methods: This study was conducted in 11 urban public schools and included 52 students with ASD and 659 peers.  All students in each classroom completed a social network survey to identify the friendships within each class (Cairns & Cairns, 1994). In addition, both classroom (n=15) and playground observations (n=28) were completed on students with ASD, examining teacher praise and behavioral correction, classroom structure, and social involvement with peers. 

Results: Preliminary results suggest that children with ASD were significantly less socially involved with their classmates than their typically developing peers (p<.001). Playground observations confirmed these low levels of social involvement.  Classroom observations showed that students with ASD were on task an average of 71.8% of observations, and performed better (stayed on-task) in classrooms when receiving more praise than corrective feedback. 

Conclusions:  It is important to explore both the academic and social repercussions of inclusion for students with ASD. Given difficulties in placement decisions, it is important to identify those factors of general education classrooms that may best support a child with ASD in both of these areas. Students with ASD may need more praise to stay on-task during instruction.  However, more classroom characteristics may need to be explored in order to improve full social inclusion.