AUTISM SPECTRUM

Autism Spectrum

Abstract

My action research mission was executed and assessed for increasing social skills while lessening unsuitable manners with students on the Autism Spectrum Disorder. My targeted group consisted of two of my students in the second largest school district in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area. The quandary of condensed social skills was documented by resources of behavioral checklists and a social skills inventory. Probable origins for these challenging manners included insufficient social skills knowledge, insufficient practice using social skills, ecological aspects, health problems, and contradictory expectations for performance. Some of the strategies I used resulted in an intervention which included direct instruction in social skills and the use of cooperative learning formations. Post intervention statistics pointed towards an increase in pro-social activities and a reduction in negative behavior. My appendices include weekly behavioral checklists, social skills investigative screen data, instructional strategies for teaching social skills, sample lesson plans, classroom management arrangement, and classroom rules. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder characterized by a severe communication deficit, language delay, failure of normal socialization, and stereotyped patterns of behavior. There is strong evidence for the genetic nature of this disorder and neuroimaging studies have highlighted several brain abnormalities. Communication and language deficits are important features associated with the spectrum of autistic disorder, which includes low-functioning autism, high-functioning autism, and Asperger's syndrome. Prosodic, semantic, pragmatic, and lexical aspects of language skills that characterize children with autism and Asperger's syndrome are reviewed. The three main hypotheses underlying the explanation of the impairments observed in autism (theory of mind, weak central coherence hypothesis, and executive dysfunction) are discussed.

While doing my research I learned that one of the most substantial tribulations for students on the autism spectrum is complexity in social dealings. This complexity is, of course, made further momentous by troubles with speech and language. However autism in addition seems to generate troubles with "mind reading" -- that is, with knowing what other human being thoughts might be. A good number of people can watch others and make a conjecture, in the course of a mixture of tone and body language, what is really taking place. In broad-spectrum, not including aid and guidance, autistic students can not.

This blindness of the mind can direct even the highest-functioning student on the autism spectrum to create social slip-ups that reason to all kinds of tribulations. Not knowing why, the student on the autism spectrum can hurt feelings, ask unsuitable inquiries, act peculiarly or in general open themselves up to resentment, mockery, bullying and seclusion.

Communal and communication skill shortfalls are at the extreme heart of what it means to be autistic. Social skills start from uncomplicated sharing's to compound readings of emotional cues and body language. A number of diverse dealings can be helpful in structuring social skills at all stages for the student with autism.

Table of Content

Abstractii

CHAPTER I:INTRODUCTION1

Context and Rationale1

Setting2

The Problem2

How can the teaching practice improve the social skills for students on the Autism Spectrum?2

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW3

CHAPTER III : ACTION PLAN8

CHAPTER IV: DATA SOURCES ...