For most children with autism lacking social interaction skills is common. Many children with autism will want to make and have friends but will find this process confusing and stressful.
Lacking social interaction skills is often referred to as the autism triad of impairments but those autism triad of impairments will vary from child to child.
The actual degree a child is affected with the autism triad of impairments will generally depend on the individual’s social development.
Some children with autism on the lower end of the autism scale may have little or no language and may have other related disabilities. On the other end of the autism scale those children with asperger syndrome will often be schooled in mainstream schools and be of average to above average intelligence. This set of individuals will probably desire friendships.
Those children with asperger syndrome or mild autism will probably want friendships but making and maintaining those friendships will be a struggle, unfortunately it is believed around 40% of autistic children in mainstream education will at some point be a victim to bullying.
For most typically developing children recess and break times are a time of fun and a chance to run around and interact with their peers, this is “normal behavior”
However this is not the case with an autistic child, often the sound of the bell can fill them with fear and dread. Autistic children prefer structure, routine and dislike surprises, noises and the unstructured chaos of free time. They find choice making difficult and can sometimes be overwhelmed by recess and break times.
A lot of autistic children find recess confusing, there are a lot of choices to be made, what to play with, who to play with, what to do, so many choices a “typical child” will take for granted and enjoy, this is not the case with an autistic child.
For example a simple game, the autistic child may choose to join in with their peers, but may find comprehending the rules confusing, they may not understand the need for the rules, and then just as they start to understand the rules may change or the game may stop.
The other end to this is those children with autism that will stick rigidly to the rule and this can sometimes take the fun out of the game for the other normally developing children, they may loose interest and unfortunately the autistic child may not understand why this is and become distressed.
Some autistic children can become overwhelmed by noise, which can make recess or break time a painful and stressful time, you may find them pacing up and down in their own little world until recess is over and they can return to the routine and structure of the classroom.
All these factors can make autism and finding friends difficult to say the very least.
So how can you help with the problem of autism and finding friends?
Generally as we discussed earlier kids with autism prefer structure and routine, this can be achieved by the use of autism visual supports such as autism visual schedules and social skills stories, these resources are used in the classroom to add structure and routine the child’s day.
These autism visual supports can also be used to help kids with autism cope with recess and break times taking away some of anxieties they may feel around this time of the day.
The autism visual supports can also be used to help autistic children understand how to maintain friendships, by teaching the autistic child how to use conversation, how to pretend play, how to be kind, respect peoples feelings and personal space, how to share and make choices and so on, all social skills we take for granted, but an autistic child will need to be taught these social skills directly.
Therefore the perfect place to start with autism and making friends is with autism visual supports such as autism visual schedules and social skills stories to teach the autistic child the social skills necessary for making and maintaining friendships and dealing with recess and break times.
You can find appropriate social skills stories and other autism resources for kids with autism for download at:
Autism spectrum disorder is a complex neurobiological disorder, there is no cure for autism and typically the symptoms of autism will be ongoing throughout the autistic person’s life.
Autism spectrum disorder is characterized by varying degrees of autistic impairments often referred to as the triad of autistic impairments or social skills deficits.
These social skills deficits are typically displayed in the development of communication, social, imagination and interaction skills and abilities, and also by repetitive behaviors.
The symptoms of autism range from mild autism which is often called asperger syndrome to severe autism or low functioning autism.
The symptoms of mild autism can vary between individuals on the spectrum. Although all children on the autism spectrum disorder scale may exhibit some similar traits not every child will display all of characteristics associated with autism.
A child with autism on the lower end of the autism scale may never develop speech or it may be delayed and may have other educational disabilities, while a child with autism on the higher end of the autism scale can be high-functioning with average or above average intelligence and attend mainstream school.
Some autistic children have sensory processing issues in some or all of the senses and may display sensory processing issues such as being sensitive to the feel of fabric so much so that all tags must be cut out of clothing before they will wear it. Another child with autism may display no sensory issues at all.
However, all children with autism spectrum disorder will display social skills deficits with communication whether your child has the symptoms of mild autism or severe they will all have communication both verbal and non-verbal communication skills difficulties.
A child with autism will have difficulties relating to other people and will fail to understand non-verbal communication or body language.
Children with autism spectrum disorder are often referred to as having “mind blindness” or lacking the “theory of mind”. This means missing the ability to predict the thoughts, feelings and emotions expressed by other people.
For example we can tell a lot by a person’s posture, we can tell whether they are approachable, upset or happy, this ability to read another person is missing in people with autism.
However there are treatments available to peoplewith autism that can help them learn social, communication, imagination and interaction skills.
The internet makes finding appropriate autismresources that help autistic people learn these social skills much easier. Generally most autistic people have found tremendous successes with autism resources such as social skills stories.
The symptoms of mild autism are such that generally most autistic children or asperger syndrome individuals can use social skills stories efficiently for coping and understanding social skills that they otherwise struggle to comprehend, which can sometimes lead to social blunders and stressful situations.
More often than not autistic people will have social impairments and lack the ability to “mind read†or understand what others maybe thinking. They will not have the ability to understand body language or facial expression. Something we as a whole take for granted.
Social impairments become apparent early in childhood and continue through to adulthood.
Autistic children will pay less attention to social stimuli, they will probably smile a lot less and won’t be interested in engaging with others, they may also respond less to their own name.
You may find your autistic toddler for example, will give less eye contact, may respond less to his/her name, not be as cuddly and is more likely to communicate by pulling on your hand and leading you to what they desire.
By the ages of between three to five years old most normally developing youngsters will understand facial expressions, body language and non-verbal communication skills…and most definitely learnt how to manipulate their parents!…
Autistic children are less likely to exhibit any social understanding, they will almost certainly be less likely to approach others spontaneously, imitate and respond to emotions, and still not grasp the concept of turn taking.
However, autistic children do form attachments to their primary caregivers, parents, and teachers. They will undoubtedly display less attachment than that of a normally developing child though.
Children with less severe Autism Spectrum Disorder, like aspergers or mild autism may be more likely to form stronger bonds, but as they grow older studies have shown they perform slightly less on tests of face and emotion recognition.
Making and maintaining friendships often proves to be difficult for those with autism. For them, the quality of friendships, not the number of friends, predicts how lonely they are.
Autistic children like all normally developing children do need friends…and as a parent or teacher of an autistic child there are ways in which you can help them understand the importance of being a good friend. As well as helping them learn the skill of making friends, something again we take for granted, as an autistic person this skill does not come naturally, but needs to be learnt.
As a primary caregiver, parent or teacher, you can help by introducing the idea of autism social stories as a technique of explaining how we make friends, why we need friends and how to then maintain those friendships in easy to understand language.
These valuable short pieces of text are an excellent tool which you can use with your autistic child to help them understand and control situations.
Appropriate autism social stories are well written in the first person and will have images and or photos showing your autistic child in a clear helpful manner how, why, where and when they should do something. They will give the appropriate responses the autistic person may expect and also the responses they themselves should expect from others.
Autistic children on the whole have issues when it comes to making and keeping friends.
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Sometimes they can find themselves as the targets for bullies, because of their lack of social understanding and on occasion’s odd behavior, language and unusual pre-occupations and tendencies.
Their lack of understanding and ability to respond in socially expected ways to nonverbal cues can lead to conflict or being ignored by others. Children with Asperger’s syndrome will sometimes be extremely literal and may find interpreting and responding to sarcasm or banter difficult….And may well not understand what has been said or done.
Therefore, the sooner an autistic child learns how to make appropriate friendships the better. It can help reduce problems, like bullying and lead to better relationships with people who aren’t on the spectrum.
It is easy as a non-autistic person to forget how complex social skills are;
For example:
• How to enter into other children’s activity
• How to allow another child to enter into your own game or activity
• Knowing when someone needs help, and how to find help, also how to get help from others.
• Giving and receiving compliments at the right time.
• Understanding about positive criticism, when and how to give.
• Being able to accept and handle criticism from others
• Accepting the ideas and suggestions of others, and what to do with them
• Controlling negative situations and turning them into a positive
• Learning how to act appropriately at home and in public
• Understanding body language, and facial expressions
• Understanding and using “nick namesâ€, appropriate use of words, like swear words, or rude gestures and words.
• Taking part in conversation.
• Managing disagreement with compromise instead of aggression or emotional outbursts
• Accepting not everybody will agree with you, and recognizing peoples opinions can at time vary.
• Empathizing with others in both positive and negative situations
• How to leave an activity or situation without causing offense.
Non-autistic children will learn these social skills in an unconscious and intuitive way, by observing and interacting with everyone around them.
However with autism these skills are not normally learnt in such a way, and need to be learnt in a more definite manner.
Using autism social skills stories can increase your child’s ability to make and maintain friendships-by giving your child clear social cues on how to get and keep a friend.
 Plus how to act in all situations and activities, making your child more confident and ultimately helping them to make those friendships they need to fit into their environment.
We all need friends, a food friend can be like gold dust, and by using social skills storiesyour autistic child can maintain normal friendships.
To obtain specific and even personalized social skills stories for your autistic child
There are various forms of treatments for Autistic people below is a list of some of the treatments you may have seen or heard of:
Drug treatment
Speech / language therapy
Occupational therapy
Yeast therapy
Music therapy
TEACCH
Auditory training
PECS (Picture Exchange Communications Systems)
Social Stories
Vitamin / mineral therapy
Sensory intergration therapy
Lovaas method
Allergy induced autism and casein / gluten
Holding therapy
Craniosacral / Osteopathy therapy
Son-rise program
Daily life therapy (Higashi)
The squeeze machine
Delacto therapy
Photo stimulation (Flexyx therapy)
So what do you choose and what do they all mean?
Your Early Intervention Program will help you decide which treatments would benefit your autistic child.
Watch for the next post when we will be taking the first on the list Drug treatment, when we will explain what this is and what medication your child may be given
Alternatively visit us at www.autismsocialstories.com for advice and information on autism or for advcie on school related issues we can also be found at
Most autistic children will not develop the normal speech or non-verbal i.e. pointing abilities and skills of other children of the same age, who are developing normally.
Autistic children may also normally find difficulties understanding the meanings in spoken or written language.
Children with severe autism will sometimes never even learn the skill of talking at all.
A severely autistic child may not be developing their communication skills and this will begin to be apparent because:
They will not be babbling or pointing by the age of one
They may not be responding to their own name
They will not of learnt at least two words by the time they reach two
In the older child, you will notice difficulties in sustaining conversation and odd use of language.
Repetition of heard and learnt language, repeating a single sentence sometimes over and over again
However there are ways to help autistic children develop communication by using autism social stories.
Autism social stories are visual supports for autistic people…they give autistic people clear instruction and coping strategies…for all those situations they struggle to understand or cope with. For immediate download of autism social stories visit: www.autismsocialstories.comÂ
In the past there was a lack of knowledge about autism. However today there is a rapidly growing autism awareness of the special needs and difficulties that children with autism can face.
There is also a rapidly growing number of specialists in the field of autism spectrum disorders.
In Britainautism awareness id growing with over 500,000 people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders.
Each autistic individual’s behavior, including your own autistic childs, will be unique, but there will be underlying common problems which bond the whole group together.
If your autistic child has recently been diagnosed as having autism spectrum disorder, undoubtedly you will have a lot of questions.
Your first thoughts may be about autism awareness and what it means, how it will affect your child and where on the autism spectrum disorder your child is, as well as how, this will impact on your entire family.
Research by specialists in autism spectrum disorders has shown parents, educators and other specialists can find coping strategies for autistic behaviors using autism resources such as…autism social stories.
These vital autism resources - autism social stories are used to great affect in helping children with autism.
For more information on autism resources such as autism social stories visit:
Aspergers is a mild form of Autism, as with Autism it is a lifelong disability.
Aspergers syndrome, affects people in a similar way to Autism, the person has difficulties with three main areas of development:
The persons social imagination
Their communication skills
Plus their social interaction abilities
While there are similarities to Autism, the main difference is that the Aspergers person will have fewer problems with speaking. Plus they will normally have average, or above average intelligence.
Another difference is that they tend not have the associated learning difficulties Autistic people have. But might have other more specific learning disabilities like dyspraxia, dyslexia, ADHD and epilepsy.
There is no reason why an aspergers person can notlive a normal life.
Characteristics Aspergers Syndrome
As with most conditions the characteristics of asperger syndrome will vary from person to person.
But there is always a common thread running through all aspergers people.
Difficulties with communication and language
Generally aspergers people will find it hard to keep up with a conversation and will not express themselves correctly.
For example:
They may not understand how to begin a conversation, or end it and will not be able to read body language or facial expressions.
They may use odd language within a conversation and not understand jokes and other flippant remarks or phrases.
They will talk literally, stating the obvious even when it’s probably not cool to do so.
Difficulty with social interactions
An asperger person may miss important social cues, and find relationships hard to maintain.
For example: aspergers people may find it difficult making friends and will sometimes find it even harder to maintain those friendships they do strike up.
Aspergers people may not understand how to behave socially, they may begin inappropriate conversations and not respect personal space
The asperger person may appear withdrawn and uninterested in other people.
Have difficulties with imagination
Although some people with aspergers may show a real flare for certain activities, like painting, music or even things like numbers.
Generally people with aspergers lack social imagination.
As with Autism they will prefer repetition and sameness.
Also people with aspergers prefer routine, even down to lining up their belongings. in a ritualistic fashion.
For more information on aspergers and how to manage behaviors and problems using asperger social skills stories. Plus get all the latest information and research into how aspergers social skills stories can be used effectively for all people with aspergers helping them become more independant visit any of the blow sites and download these valuable asperger resources: www.autismsocialstories.com/asperger_adolescents
The Autism spectrum disordersare also called Pervasive Developmental disorders (PDD). This isbecause they involve delay in many areas of development.
So what is PDD?
Autism is the most severe of the PDD’s
As we have already looked at people with Autism have developmental problems with, thinking, language, behavior and social skills.
To be diagnosed as Autistic, a child will need to have had a certain amount of developmental symptoms in the areas of thinking, language, social interactions and behavior, which is often thought of as stereotypic behaviors.
What is Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS)?
PDD-NOS, is refered to as atypical autism or mild autism.
It means that the person has the same differences in their development as autism, but not to such a great degree.Â
A child with PDD-NOS does not meet the criteria for any specific PDD.Â
No matter where your child falls on the autism spectrum disorder scale they will still have the typical autism symptom: social deficits, communication deficits and imagination and interaction deficits…These can be controlled and managed using something called autism social stories.
For more information on autism social stories and how they will help control and manage autism symptoms and behaviors visit:Â www.autismsocialstories.com
Research into the causes of Autism, has shown that a combination of genetic, biological, environmental, and sometimes other factors contribute to autism.
Researchers believe that there are several genes, which may contribute to the disorder. There are also said to be several brain regions, which may also show forms of abnormalities.
Scientists are also exploring the possibilities of Genetic imprinting, which will determine the parental donator of the abnormal gene.
It has also been suggested that neurotransmitters in the brain may not be working normally, or even a faulty immune system could be the cause, or a virus.
Some research has suggested that the Autistic person may have been subjected to increased levels of protein in their mothers blood during birth.
Or that the mother whilst pregnant may have been subject to extreme stress,
Some research has also suggested vaccinations may play a part in Autism. All of these causes of autism are of cause still being looked into and as yet no single reason has been given for the causes of autism.
For more information on the causes of Autism and how we can help your autistic individual with coping strategies. By implementing autism tools such as autism social stories…visit our site.
…And gain immediate access to these reliable well researched and used autism tools...autism social stories can be used for a variety of issues and are pictorially rich making comprehension easy for the autistic individual.
Autism is a developmental disorder which can affect children from either birth or the early months of their lives.
Research into understanding autism - cause and affect…shows delays and deviance from normal development. This will occur in three areas:
1.Social relationships and interactions
2.Language and communication.
3.Activities and interests.
When these three areas of behavior are affected. At more deeper level than that of a normally developing child, the distinctive patterns that are noticed in the symptoms of Autism in a child become apparent.
Some experts now believe that children with the these areas of impairments should be given the diagnosis “autism spectrum disorders”.
Which should then lead on to further and more in depth diagnosis of autism being made.
Which in turn should look at the severity, the cognitive level, plus the clinical traits and associated medical conditions.
The National Autistic Society in the UK suggests a possible rate of almost 1 in 100 people will be diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorders.
Although autism is normally present from birth, or very soon after, there can be a delay in autism diagnosis due to the nature of the condition and sometimes the severity.
Diagnosing Autism can be complicated, because of the variations found in the mental ability of children with autism.
Approximately two-thirds of children with autism will have additional learning difficulties, with unusual behavior patterns, which may well be put down to an overall developmental delay. There are methods used for children with autism to help them become more socially aware of their enviroment…these are called autism social stories.
These autism social storiescan be used effectively in the home and classroom to help children with autism understand the world they live in and give them methods and techniques for undertaking, tasks, activities, social situations and events. They provide clear instruction for tasks such as: tooth brushing, using deodrant, getting a haircut and visiting the doctor. As well as instruction on various other topics…
All pictorially rich, as children with autism are visual learners To gain immediate access to these autism social stories and help with understanding autism visit
One of the main features of autism is an impaired social interaction. Many autistic children will engage in repetitive behaviors, such as rocking, twirling, finger flicking and toe walking. Or they may use self-harming behavior such as head banging and biting themselves.
The find the world confusing and therefore the overload of sensory input from the world around them is too much for them to handle. So they will use autistic repetitive behavior like finger flicking, this is called stimming, in order to concentrate on the flicking and thus calm themselves down.
Mostly autistic children tend to start speaking later than other children and may also refer to themselves by their name rather than saying I or me, as we would.
Many autistic children have a reduced sensitivity to pain, and are abnormally sensitive to sound, touch, and other sensory stimulation.
Which is why there tends to be an adverse reaction to being touched or cuddled.
It is still not known for sure why, but on average 20 to 30% of autistic children will develop epilepsy by the time they reach adulthood.
Autism is normally detected during infancy or very early childhood. Usually there are some concerns about the child’s development, which is normally noticed and recorded within the first year.
These concerns will normally relate to problems the autistic child is having with communication, play, or social responsiveness, and to stimming or repetitive behavior.
Over time, the pattern of an autistic childs development is mainly influenced by the degree of cognitive impairment.
Autism may co-exist with a varying range of measured ability levels; the overall majority of autistic people do have some degree of learning difficulties. With around 50% of Autistic people having IQs of 50 or below.
Certainly it has been found that those who have severe learning difficulties are unlikely to develop any kind of meaningful speech.
Sometimes in autistic children there is also a possibility that they will develop behaviors like self-harming and stimming.
However research shows that sometimes when the abilities of autistic children are considered within the average range, the outcomes of behavior are more unpredictable.
In some cases, there has been an improvement as the autistic child gets older and their ability to cope with; and adapt to, situations becomes much better.
However also within this group of autistic people, some will remain dependent.
But others may achieve virtual independence and be able to maintain successful employment.
In some autistic children however, it is found that sometimes their overall problems will increase with age.
However regardless of the autistic persons abilities there is still something you can do to aid their social and personal development.
Research shows that by using autism social stories as a method for helping autistic people find clear coping strategies they can gain some form of social understanding and gain more independence.
