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Autism & Developmental Disorders Lab (ADDL): Results
from our Study of Social Competence
WHAT WE DID:
Although all individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) demonstrate some degree of challenges
with social interaction, there is great variability in the types of difficulties that are shown. For instance,
some children/adolescents with ASD seem to be very interested in interacting with others but have
trouble applying their knowledge of social situations in day to day life. Others appear relatively content to
be alone and don’t seem as interested in being around other people. Some struggle particularly with
having a back and forth conversation while others have the most difficulty reading other people’s social
cues (e.g., facial expressions, picking up sarcasm). We think that such differences in social presentation
might have important implications for developing and planning appropriate social skills treatments that
are tailored to each individual. So far, however, clinicians and researchers do not have many
standardized tools to help them identify which areas a child/adolescent with ASD struggles with most.
In this study, a new parent questionnaire called the “Multidimensional Social Competence Scale” (MSCS)
was developed and evaluated. This measure was designed to help researchers and clinicians identify a
child/adolescent’s relative social strengths and weaknesses. In total, 181 parents of children/adolescents
with ASD from across Canada participated in this study and completed the MSCS (either as an online
survey or a paper version).
WHAT WE FOUND:
The version of the MSCS that you completed was very long (almost 200 items) because we wanted to
find out which questions would be most relevant to identifying a child/adolescent’s social strengths and
weaknesses. Based on our statistical analyses, we were able to shorten the scale so that in the future it
will include only the 77 “best” items (and will take much less time for parents to complete).
We found that the 77 items on the scale could be grouped into 7 areas (domains) that are relevant to
social skills in children/adolescents including:
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Social Motivation - level of interest in spending time other people
Social Inferencing - ability to read social cues and see things from another person’s perspective
Demonstrating Empathic Concern – showing appropriate concern when other people are hurt
or upset
Social Knowledge – general knowledge of day to day social situations (e.g., how to behave
appropriately in public places)
Verbal Conversation Skills –ability to have a back and forth conversation
Nonverbal Skills –ability to communicate with others nonverbally (e.g., using appropriate eye
contact, facial expressions, tone of voice)
Emotion Regulation –ability to control his/her emotional reactions so they don’t interfere with
social interactions (e.g., staying in control of his/her feelings when he/she is very angry or upset)
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We hope that these domains will help clinicians/researchers to pinpoint what areas of social functioning
are most challenging for an individual child (or, alternately, represent areas of relative strength).
We also found that some of these domains appeared to be more or less related to a child/adolescent’s
friendships and level of acceptance by his/her peers. For instance, we found that kids who struggled
particularly with having back and forth conversations and controlling their emotions tended to have the
most difficulty being accepted by their classmates at school. This is an interesting finding and suggests
that these are the skills that are perhaps most “visible” to other children and, therefore, may be
particularly important to target in interventions.
IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS
In this study we have shown that the MSCS can identify a child/adolescent’s profile of relative social
strengths and weaknesses. We are planning on publishing this study in a peer-reviewed, scientific
journal so that other researchers and clinicians will have access to the questionnaire. In particular, we
hope that it can be used to help develop and improve social skills interventions as we know that
appropriate social skills treatments for older children/adolescents with ASD can be hard to come by in
many areas.
SOME IDEAS AND POSSIBLE READINGS
Many children/adolescents with ASD will benefit (to varying degrees) from participating in social skills
training groups that teach social skills in a supportive atmosphere. However, these groups can be hard to
find and are often expensive.
Here are some other ideas that may be helpful for some children/adolescents:
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Discuss complex emotional situations on a regular basis. Some kids with ASD will need help
“running through” these events step by step in order to better understand the reactions of others.
It can also be helpful to discuss real life social and emotional situations that happen in your own
life (or that you both are observing in others) so that you can model how you pick up on various
cues to figure out how people are feeling.
o
While watching tv shows/movies, discuss how each character is feeling, how you can tell, and the
meaning of certain expressions/gestures. This exercise can also be completed with the sound off
so that the child is forced to pay attention to nonverbal cues (facial expressions, body language).
It can be fun to watch shows/movies that exaggerate inappropriate social behaviours (e.g., “Mr.
Bean”) and have the kids “spot the social mistakes”.
o
Role plays in which you act out various social and emotion situations and ask the child to identify
the emotion (or an inappropriate social behaviour). These activities can help kids recognize the
different variations of emotional cues (e.g., ranging from typical manifestations that are very
obvious to those that are more subtle and harder to detect).
o
Drama classes (offered at school or in the community) can help some kids with ASD develop
emotion recognition and expression skills as they are often explicitly taught different ways of
expressing emotion (e.g., they are told what to say and how to say it to convey a particular
emotion).
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Social Stories: For younger children, it can be helpful to learn ‘social stories’ that are relevant to
social situations that are particularly challenging for them - http://www.thegraycenter.org/socialstories
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Social Behaviour Maps: See Social Behaviour Mapping, Connecting Behaviour, Emotions and
Consequences Across the Day edited by M Garcia Winner: http://www.socialthinking.com/booksproducts?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&category_id=9&product_id=118
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Other helpful books that have good ideas about ways to promote social skills among kids with
ASD:
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Baker, J. (2003). Social skills training for children and adolescents with Asperger
syndrome and social-communication problems.
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Bellini, S. (2006). Building social relationships. A systematic approach to teaching social
interaction skills to children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders and other
social difficulties.
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McAfee, Jeanette. (2002). Navigating the social world: A curriculum for individuals with
Asperger’s syndrome, high functioning autism and related disorders.
(http://www.jeaniemcafee.com/book.asp)
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Ozonoff, S., Dawson, G., & McPartland, J. (2002). A parent’s guide to Asperger syndrome
& high functioning autism: How to meet the challenges and help your child thrive.
Thanks again for your support of our research!
Jodi Yager, Ph.D.
Autism and Developmental Disorders Lab
Simon Fraser University
http://autismlab.psyc.sfu.ca/
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