The social communication and interarction of children with autism in primary schools

Abstract

Children with ASD are now being included in mainstream schools. Given their main difficulty in social interaction and communication, it is important to look into the experiences of social interaction and communication that these children are having with their peers and educators. This study was an attempt to describe how these children related to the social environment, and therefore how they communicated and built relationships with others during the lessons and break-time. A qualitative case study design was adopted where five children from five different Primary Schools in Malta and Gozo were observed during school hours, while interviews were held with the class teacher and LSA. The findings were thematically analyzed and compared to the relevant literature. Findings showed that there were different levels of social interaction and communication among the five students and these also differed in how they related to peers and to educators. More importantly it was found that, the class and school environment seemed to play a significant role in either enhancing or hindering both the social interaction and communication from taking place in school. Where there was joint effort between educators and peers for facilitating relations with the student with autism, he or she was seen to improve much more in both social interaction and communication during lessons and break-time activities. This study therefore suggests that there are other factors apart from the condition in itself that may hinder students with autism from benefitting from the potential opportunities of inclusive schooling for developing higher levels of both social interaction and communication and subsequently also of academic achievement.