Autism Therapy More Successful When Peers Involved Too

Source: Disability Scoop

Kids with autism fare significantly better socially when their typically developing classmates are taught how to interact with them, new research suggests.

Often students with autism are targeted for social skills training. But that alone may not be the best approach, according to a study published this week in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

For the study, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles looked at 60 kids with autism ages 6 to 11, all of whom were in mainstream classes at least 80 percent of the day.

Some of the children received one-on-one social skills training from a professional. In other cases, a professional taught a group of three typically developing kids from the child’s class how to engage with students who have social difficulties but did not interact with the child who had autism.

Read more...