Kids with autism need to be taught their social skills in a direct fashion. This is because kids with autism are not going to acquire social skills as easy as younglings without autism develop naturally.
Autism and social skills:
Autistic children find it difficult to read facial expressions and body language, their ability to read social cues from subtle body movement or their “mind reading” skills are not present. This means they can be unaware of other’s mannerisms, feelings, and thoughts socially, which can result in social mistakes.
Normally, children who have autism will find little to no interest in the people and world around them. A normal developing child will already attempt to imitate gestures and words such saying hi or waving goodbye, smile at people, and grasp fingers by their first birthday.
Children who have autism will have difficulty in interacting with others and will possibly not interact with others in the same manner most people often do. And in some cases, they might not have any interest in others at all. Children who have autism will mostly choose to be in their own company and will not make eye contact. Most autistic children will have a hard time learning to share and take turns even more so than other kids. This makes kids not want to play with them.
A normally developing child will be able to learn and copy naturally, menial every day skills such as eating habits, saying please and thank you, and toilet training. A child with autism will struggle when it comes to comprehend the importance as to why they should learn such social skills.
Social stories for specialed. Click here to learn more about special education and social stories.
Using social stories or social narratives for children with autism like the ones that are being sold by AdaptEd 4 Special Ed, you can help your special youngling learn valuable social skills through social narratives that are design by professionals in the field. Children with autism respond positively well to social stories, this is proven by research thus making these social stories great tools for teaching and re-enforcing important social skills.
When you are successful in teaching your child these social skills through these social narratives you are able to increase their self confidence which leads to positive results and improvement of their quality of life such as being able to form friendships at home and at school. A good autism social story will feature a specific social scenario, interaction, or skill. A good narrative for these stories to revolve around would be things such as going to the dentist, going shopping, recess, or moving schools.You can even find social stories pdf versions. For more information, click here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_education.
