Au#sm

and Early Socializa#on

Bailie Guidry
Our Lady of the Lake College, Baton Rouge

Abstract
There is currently a lot of research being currently
done on the causes of Aus7n Spectrum Disorder
(ASD), but I would like to assess the issues people
with au7sm have. Although ASD has a wide range
of symptoms, the most common amongst the ASD
community is communica7on decits. This creates
more stress in the child with ASD as well as the
parents. I want to determine if early, formal
socializa7on helps improve a childs
communica7on skills. I plan to survey the parents
and teachers of 12 year old au7s7c students in St.
Charles Parish School System. I will give them the
Social Responsiveness Scale 2nd Edi7on to ll out
assessing each childs social skills. I will then look
to see what age the child began formal learning,
such as daycare or head start programs, and see if
there is a rela7onship between their Social
Responsiveness Scale scores and the age they
began formal learning.

Introduc7on
Our group came up with the broad topic of
healthcare as a group topic. I then decided to
focus on ASD, as this disorder can cause
healthcare costs to increase due to the increased
service these kids need throughout their life.
These therapy services include speech therapy,
occupa7onal therapy, behavioral therapy, and
physical therapy. Although these are oQen oered
in public schools, many kids also have to receive
these therapies in the outpa7ent seSng. I decided
to research this topic because I am a PTA that has
worked with many au7s7c children and I nd it
fascina7ng how they all func7on at very dierent
levels. I have oQen wondered if these kids were in
formalized seSngs earlier than kindergarten,
would they be higher func7oning in
communica7on skills. This study will help lead to
future research on early socializa7on, as well as
provide educa7on on the importance of
formalized learning programs for kids with au7sm.
The dicult part about au7sm is that they are
oQen not diagnosed un7l age 4 or 5, in which they
are already star7ng kindergarten. This research
would help physicians promote early socializa7on
during childhood doctors visits to try and assist
those that eventually develop au7sm.

Although there is a good deal of research

involving ASD, there are s7ll some gaps in the
literature. I was not able to nd any informa7on
on early socializa7on and how it aects those
with au7sm later in life. This could be because
au7sm is not usually diagnosed un7l age 3-4
years. New research on early socializa7on
techniques is not only important for the child
with ASD, but also important for the parents. It
is oQen hard for parents to not be able to
understand what their child wants. It is also
frustra7ng for the child with ASD to not be able
to communicate what they want or need.

Hypotheses
Is there a signicant correla7on between formal
socializa7on, age, and advanced communica7on
skills in children with au7sm?

Literature Review
Research has oQen focused on the poten7al
causes of ASD, rather than how to assist those
who already have decits from ASD. Almuhiri et al.
(2014) conducted a study that observed how video
modeling impacted social skills in kids with au7sm.
The study found that aQer exposing children to a
video modeling a certain behavior the kids were
able to reenact this behavior. This could be useful
for teaching kids with ASD certain classroom
behaviors. Corbe_m et al. (2014) conducted a
study on cor7sol levels in kids with ASD during
free play and facilitated play. Kids with ASD tend
to have higher cor7sol levels during social
interac7on than their non-ASD peers, and have
higher levels during facilitated play. OQen during
free play kids with ASD preferred to play alone,
whereas during facilitated play they had to
interact with their other peers. This contributes to
the current research on how stressful social
interac7ons can be to those with ASD. Im and Ke
(2013) studied the use of Internet based virtual
reality and how it helps those with ASD learn and
interact in the real world. The study did help kids
with ASD be_er understand social interac7ons,
but they had trouble conver7ng those skills into
real-world interac7on. Beutel et al. (2015)
examined the social interac7on between au7s7c
high school students and their non-au7s7c peers
during lunch7me.

This study showed that having mainstream

interac7on with their peers could increase their
speech and communica7on with their non-ASD
peers. The family unit is also an important part of
a childs progression. It is important to have a
suppor7ve, understanding family unit so that the
child can progress as much as they can. Jorgenson
et al. (2015) studied how having an au7s7c child
impacted parents feelings about having more
children. Many parents who only had the one
child with ASD said they would have more, but
those with two or more already said they would
not. Kids with ASD are oQen very involved with
behavioral therapy, speech therapy, and
occupa7onal therapy, which can oQen cause the
parent to have to focus more of their a_en7on on
that child.

Method

In order to test if there is a signicant correla7on

between formal socializa7on, age, and advanced
communica7on skill in those with au7sm, I will
gather a sample of 12 year old kids with ASD from
St. Charles Parish Public Schools. I will then
conduct an informa7on session for the parents
and teachers to explain the study and get waivers
signed for the kids to par7cipate. I will gather
informa7on from their parents regarding what age
they began formalized learning. For the purpose of
this study, formalized learning seSngs are dened
as at least 3 star daycares, government approved
head start programs and preschools, or speech
and occupa7onal therapy services. I will then
administer the Social Responsiveness Scale 2nd
Edi7on to the parents and teachers. This test is
used specically for those with ASD to iden7fy
areas of weakness in their social interac7ons.
There are 4 subsec7ons with 65 ques7ons total.
The parents and teachers ll them out based on
their interac7ons with the child. I will the calculate
an averages score for each child, and compare the
scores to the ages they started formalized learning
seSngs. I will use Pearsons correla7on coecient
to determine if there is a correla7on among the
variables. I will discuss these results with the
parents and teachers if they would like.

I will ensure that their results will be anonymous by

assigning each student a random number that I will
use as their iden7er. I will use a graph to show if
there is a correla7on between the scores and age
of star7ng formalized learning seSngs.

Predicted Results
I predict that there is a sta7s7cally signicant
rela7onship between formal socializa7on, age,
and advanced communica7on skills in children
with ASD.
I will show the results using a graph. The X-axis will
contain the age the child began formalized
learning. The Y-axis will contain the Social
Responsiveness Score.

References
1. Almuhiri, O., Alzyoudi, M.,& AbedAlziz, S. (2014). The
impact of video modeling on improving social skills in
children with au7sm. Bri7sh Journal of Special
Educa7on, 42, 54-68. doi: 10.1111/1467-8578.12057

2. Beutel, K., Carter, E., Gustafson, J., Harvey, M., &
Hochman, J. (2015). Ecacy of peer networks to increase
social connec7ons among high school students with and
without au7sm spectrum disorder. Excep*onal Children,
82(1), 96-116. doi: 10.1177/0014402915585482

3. Corbe_m B., Edgerton, D., Newsom, C., Song, Y.,
Swain, P., & Wang, L. (2014). Biobehavioral proles of
arousal and social mo7va7on in au7sm spectrum
disorders. The Journal of Child Psychology and
Psychiatry, 55(8), 924-934. doi:10.1111/jcpp.12184

4. Im, T.& Ke. F. (2013). Virtual-reality-based social
interac7on
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w
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au7sm.
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441-461. doi:10.1080/00220671.2013.832999

5. Jorgenson, A., Navot, N., Stoep, A., Toth, K., & Webb,
S. (2015). Family planning and family vision in mothers
aQer diagnosis of a child with au7sm spectrum disorder.
Au*sm, 1-11. doi: 10.1177/1362361315602134