Behaviour Case

In Topic Two, you were provided with the three core diagnostic features attributed to individuals diagnosed with an ASD. One of these core features includes impairments in the frequency and quality of reciprocal social interactions with others. From an early age, most children diagnosed with an ASD relate differently to other people. These social problems include a reduced likelihood of orienting to other people, approaching and imitating peers, sharing, and responding to play initiations (National Research Council, 2002). For those children who do show an interest in interacting with their peers, they often face other challenges such as a limited understanding of the facial expressions and emotions of others, difficulty with perspective taking, and a tendency to perseverate on a particular topic. The level of social impairment is also unique to each child; various factors such as the degree of cognitive impairment, the age of the child, and the setting in which social behaviour was measured can influence a child’s social behaviour. However, these impairments are often pervasive in nature in that they are found across multiple environments and often persist across time into adulthood.Whether you are using adult-mediated or peer-mediated interventions for teaching a new social behaviour to a child diagnosed with an ASD, there are a number of environmental arrangements that can be implemented to increase a child’s motivation to engage in and maintain social interactions with their peers. First of all, it is important to embed teaching goals around preferred activities or topics, such as songs or games. This is true both for the target child and for the peers involved in the social interactions. For a child diagnosed with an ASD, it may be beneficial to use activities that are both familiar and predictable. Often, activities that have been successfully practiced and learned in 1:1 teaching context can be effectively transferred to a natural social setting with a