Strategies - Promoting social relationships
Redirecting the young person from inappropriate to appropriate interaction with adults
Using semi-structured joint activities to promote peer relationships
Building on the young person's interests to promote peer relationships
Using stories to support social understanding in order to promote peer relationships
Introduction
Because sighted autistic young people have a core difficulty with social interaction, they find it difficult to understand and predict the behaviour of other people. They have a particular difficulty interacting with young people of their own age. Most autistic young people interact much more successfully with adults than with their age peers; some interact more successfully with young people who are older; and some interact more successfully (superficially, at least) with those who are much younger.
It is possible that sighted autistic young people find it somewhat easier to interact with adults than with their age peers because adults (at least caring ones who live or work with them) are more likely than peers to adjust their behaviour to support them. Young people who are older are also more likely to do this than age peers. Sighted autistic young people may get on relatively well with those who are younger as the latter may not mind (initially, at least) interacting with someone older, even if he / she does dominate and control them.
This tendency for sighted autistic young people to form social relationships more readily with adults than with peers seems to be mirrored in young people with visual impairment and autism. It is certainly the case with several, if not all, of the young people featured in the case studies in this guidance material.
Of the young people observed by members of the Project team during the preparation of this guidance material, few were being supported with strategies to promote their social relationships with peers.
It is not clear why this was so. A possible factor is that there may have been other more pressing issues to address with the young people. One such issue may have been the absolute necessity for practitioners to build good social relationships themselves with the young people they work with; thus, practitioners may have given this priority over the promotion of relationships with peers.
The difficulties young people with visual impairment and autism have establishing and maintaining social relationships with peers is explored more fully below.
Promoting social relationships with adults
Key strategies practitioners employ when promoting their own social relationships with young people who have visual impairment and autism are:
In turn, each of these strategies depends on others; for further information, users should follow the links above.
The practitioners who support the young people featured in the case studies have succeeded in establishing excellent relationships with those young people. Nevertheless, the staff supporting Amanda encountered some difficulties. They therefore devised two additional strategies, described below
Promoting social relationships with peers
Several factors are likely to play a part in the difficulties young people with visual impairment and autism have in establishing and maintaining social relationships with peers.
Two key factors arise from the young person's autism: he / she will find it difficult to:
The young person�s visual impairment is also important: with little or no sight he / she will have very significantly reduced access to information about his / her peers. The extent of the young person�s difficulties in this respect will depend very much on how much functional vision, if any, he / she has. The basic issue is that the young person may not know if any peers are close by. Even if the young person is aware that a peer is present, he / she may not know whether that young person is available for interaction.
A factor arising from both the autism and the visual impairment is that the young person may have rather unusual interests, meaning he / she has little or nothing in common with his / her peers.
Another important issue concerns the willingness of peers to interact with a young person who has visual impairment and autism. They may not be prepared, or able, to adjust their behaviour to meet the needs of a young person who:
Initiating contact with a group of peers is probably even more difficult than doing so with a single peer. This is because the group members will already be interacting with each other. And initiating contact with peers in the playground may be more difficult still. This is because many young people with visual impairment and autism are less physically active than their non-disabled peers.
Paradoxically, the additional support provided by teaching assistants (TAs) for young people with visual impairment and autism is probably a barrier to promoting social relationships with peers. This is because the young person's ability to interact more effectively with adults than with peers may actually be reinforced as a result of having almost continuous, very close contact with an adult. In addition, typically developing young people acquire some important peer interaction skills in the course of lessons when they participate in group activities. A young person with visual impairment and autism may have far fewer opportunities for group work � if any at all.
Thus, it is particularly important that practitioners promote peer relationships with. Some potentially useful strategies are described below:
Practitioners should be aware that almost continuous individual support may not be in the young person's best long-term interests, and put in place measures to gradually reduce the amount of support and increase the level of contact with peers.
Given Ali's age (he is only 4), the complexity of his difficulties and his sociability, he is regarded as needing the stability and security afforded by having a designated TA for most of the school day. The school is aware that as Ali settles and matures, it will be important to decrease the involvement of his designated TA and to increase the number of other staff members who work with him. This should ensure he does not become emotionally over-reliant on one member of staff and will also support
Most, if not all, resources for promoting social relationships take a visual approach. Many may not be suitable; others may have some value if they can be adapted to address the needs of individual young people. Some materials for promoting social relationships are suggested in the Resources section.
Promoting relationships with a range of adults
For several years, Amanda has formed one particularly strong attachment with a different member of staff each year. Research is now indicating that this may be a core part of autism in girls, emerging as a type of special interest. It is recognised that autistic girls differ in some key respects from autistic boys, particularly with regard to social interaction. In fact, this may parallel the situation with neuro-typical young people: girls tend to have better social skills and more interest in social interaction than boys. Differences in sociability between boys and girls with autism are likely to be a reflection of this.
This year Amanda formed a strong attachment with a member of staff, Rachel, with whom she works on a 1:1 basis. Initially this was regarded as positive because it gave Amanda opportunities to engage with learning tasks and in verbal communication. However, over time it was seen as problematic because Amanda did not want to work with other members of staff. Special effort was paid to promoting positive relationships with other members of staff working with Amanda in the classroom. For example, a teaching assistant, Sarah, was designated to work with Amanda in the classroom when Rachel was not present. Amanda's classroom routine was re-structured so that she undertook educational tasks with Rachel, followed by taking a break with Sarah. Such changes have helped Amanda to build additional positive relationships with other staff members.
Redirecting the young person from inappropriate to appropriate interaction with adults
Amanda sometimes puts her hands through the hair of a familiar adult. She appears to like this sensory activity and to find it calming. However, as she also pulls people�s hair, this behaviour is regarded as problematic: when Amanda starts to put her hands through a familiar adult�s hair, it can be difficult for that person to determine whether Amanda will persist with this behaviour or escalate into hair pulling; in addition, as Amanda is aged 13 years, putting her hands through an adult�s hair is seen as inappropriate, except, perhaps, in private.
If the practitioner with whom Amanda is interacting believes she is about to interact inappropriately (i.e. by pulling hair), that staff member offers Amanda an opportunity to interact appropriately by, for example, exchanging high-fives.
Because exchanging high-fives is a brief activity, Amanda is then enabled to fulfil her sensory need appropriately.
Using semi-structured joint activities to promote peer relationships
Amanda rarely interacts positively with her peers. Indeed, her interaction tends to be negative: she scratches and pinches other students and does not initiate play or communication with them. Therefore, strategies have been put in place to promote interaction with peers using semi-structured joint activities.
For example, Amanda is sometimes supported by a member of staff to work with a peer whose skills are at a broadly similar level. The students take it in turns to complete a word activity in which they build short words with letter cards. This is intended to build Amanda�s awareness of turn-taking and to provide her with a safe environment to work alongside a peer.
Amanda also has a weekly baking session with a peer of a similar age and who also has visual impairment and autism. Initially, the two students worked separately in the baking activities, but as Amanda became less anxious in this situation, paired working was introduced. Both students have strong interests in singing and music, so they are often supported to remain calm with the use of singing.
Some materials for promoting social relationships are suggested in the Resources section.
Using "jigsawing" to promote peer relationships
"Jigsawing" is an approach in which a task has several components. Each component is given to a small group within the class or to an individual learner working within a small group. In this way the task can only be completed if everyone achieves their part. This requires the teacher to ensure that the separate components of the task are carefully chosen and that each young person is capable of achieving his / her task independently to avoid being viewed as the weak link within the group. Because everyone contributes to the task all are valued when the result is achieved. Research suggests that if given free choice as to who should be chosen for group activities at a later date, less popular peers are now viewed more favourably.
For more information on jigsawing, see Howley and Rose (2003), Rose (1991) and Rose and Howley (2003).
Currently, Archie is not sought out by peers, as he presents as arrogant and bossy. An aspect of his autism is that he tends to apply rules rigidly; he is not able to adapt his responses to the situation. Therefore he repeatedly tells off his peers when he believes them to be behaving inappropriately. In addition, although he has learned certain rules about acceptable behaviour, he does not understand that what is unacceptable behaviour in one context may be acceptable in another. For example, he understands that interrupting a peer during a question and answer session in class is not permitted. But he thinks that the same rule applies to conversations between peers at dinner time.
Support has been provided to develop Archie's understanding of when it is acceptable and unacceptable to interrupt. This was initially in a 1:1 setting with a member of staff; then the practitioner introduced a tolerant, more able peer to the activities. This peer support has enabled Archie to begin to tolerate interruptions so long as the peer allows Archie to have a further say. In the paired work Archie and the selected peer have also been tasked with co-operative jigsawed activities, for example in art and food technology lessons.
In art Archie has been paired with a peer to produce a model of a pair of hands. First, one member of the pair had to make a cast of the other's hand; this was then used to create a model. The process was repeated with the roles exchanged; the end product was a pair of model hands � one from each participant.
Food technology provides very useful opportunities for jigsawed activities. In one lesson, Archie and a peer first decided to prepare a salad; then they decided what to use (tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, etc); they shared out the roles (washing and cutting up the tomatoes; washing carrots and grating the carrots; preparing the lettuce; setting the table; and so on). Each then carried out his role, coming together at the end to combine the ingredients, followed by eating the salad.
Such activities are useful for Archie as they provide structured support which enables him to interact with a peer. They also promote his social communication skills. This is because jigsawed activities require him to use these skills functionally in a "real" situation. Using the skills in this way is preferable to talking about and rehearsing them in a lesson, which is an artificial situation, divorced from everyday life. Archie is beginning to transfer the skills he has practiced in jigsawed activities to other situations.
Archie's peer interaction and social communication skills have developed as a result of the jigsawed activities: he now views another person's contribution as valid. Nevertheless, Archie still lacks the ability to participate adequately in a conversation with a peer. Staff are introducing a Social Story� to support his social understanding in this area; it explains the difference between conversations and formal turn taking interactions.
Some materials for promoting social relationships are suggested in the Resources section.
Using a resonance board to promote peer relationships
Winnie sometimes participates in interactive sessions which take place on a resonance board and involve one or two of her peers. She occasionally responds to a peer during such a session: Winnie has sometimes smiled when a verbal peer has said something, or when a peer has tapped on the resonance board. It should be noted that this is only an initial stage in promoting peer interaction for Winnie; for example, given that she is blind and has severe learning difficulties, it is not clear that she is aware that she is responding to a peer rather than a practitioner.
Some materials for promoting social relationships are suggested in the Resources section.
Using traditional games to promote peer relationships
Traditional games are used to promote Cecily's peer relationships.
Although her spoken language is good, Cecily rarely interacts with other young people. Tow possible contributory factors have been identified: she is an only child, and she has full-time individual support. Cecily tolerates rather than interacts with her peers.
The traditional games used with Cecily include "rock-paper-scissors". Her teaching assistants (TAs) have taught this to Cecily and they encourage her to participate in playing it with her peers in the playground. However, this has met with only limited success: Cecily continues to engage with peers only when prompted to do so by one of the TAs. A difficulty is that her participation is rather stilted and mechanical, and her peers find it difficult to include her. Although they willingly allow her to join them when asked to do so by one of the TAs, they do not invite Cecily to play with them, and Cecily never asks to join in.
A great deal of material on games, including traditional games, is available in Rousseau (2012).
Other materials for promoting social relationships are suggested in the Resources section.
Building on the young person's interests to promote peer relationships
Charles is physically very active and spontaneously joins football games in the playground. Practitioners have built on his interest in football to promote his peer interaction skills. They have done so by prompting older, non-disabled young people to include him in their playground football games. However, Charles has no sense of a game or of rules. He does not actually interact with his peers, taking no part in team selection. Indeed, he does not play as a member of a team; he merely runs with the other players and kicks the ball when it comes to him. As he has no concept of scoring goals or winning, and is never a member of a team, he does not celebrate when a goal is scored. In other words, Charles continues to play alongside rather than with other peers.
Thus this strategy has, to date, met with only partial success. Charles' peers tolerate him running with them and do not mind when he occasionally kicks the ball, but they make no attempt to actively include him. The patience of his peers is sometimes tested when he prevents a goal being scored.
It is worth noting here that young people with visual impairment and autism are unlikely to have the understanding and skills necessary to participate fully in team games. Cricket, which can be adapted for those with visual impairment, may be an exception. Sports and physical activities that are more suited to young people with visual impairment and autism are those which are solitary: athletics, climbing, swimming, canoeing, for example; riding a tandem may also be appropriate. It may be possible to promote peer interaction skills in the context of activities like these. However, this is not possible in the school playground at break time, is unlikely to be feasible for an individual as young as Charles, and may be particularly hard if the young person also has learning difficulties. (Charles is only 6, and has severe learning difficulties.)
Some materials for promoting social relationships are suggested in the Resources section.
Using stories to support social understanding in order to promote peer relationships
For some young people with visual impairment and autism, stories can be used to support social understanding and therefore to promote positive behaviour.
Despite "jigsawing" being used to promote Archie's peer relationships, he still lacks the ability to participate adequately in a conversation with a peer. Staff are therefore introducing a Social Story� to support his social understanding in this area; it explains the difference between conversations and formal turn taking interactions.
Akers (2011) showed that a story about a group setting with sighted peers can support progress in a blind young person with social communication difficulties; the young person made progress in:
It is important to provide a separate story for each social situation the young person finds difficult. To promote a young person's peer relationships, it may be necessary to provide a series of stories over time; for example, amongst other aspects of interacting with peers, they could support the young person to understand that
Some materials for promoting social relationships are suggested in the Resources section.