Social Interaction in Learners with Autism “How do teachers try to enhance social interactions in students with autism and which methods do they apply?”

Abstract

This study aims to investigate how teachers try to enhance social interaction in students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), which methods they apply and what factors make them to apply these methods. There are seven social interaction impairments suggested by Turkington (2007), Halliwel (2003) and Gallo (2010) that are ''problem in reciprocity, initiating communication, maintaining eye contact, sharing pleasure, understanding the interest of others''; “unable to act in accordance with the rules that are commonly known by the society”; and “lack of understanding of the concept of personal space” (Meressa, 2014, p. 15, 16). To attain this objective, six authorized teachers who have experience in working with children with autism were interviewed. The result of this study was categorized based on these seven social interaction impairments. The results suggested that there are two groups of approaches, including visual and interactive approaches to enhance social interactions among children with autism. Visual approaches consist of using picture, communication notebook, comic strip, smiley and checklist while interactive methods include back by back, talking, role play, theatre, social story, using objects and body, secret code, one step before, positive reinforcement, showing practically, and color words.