Teen Peer Socialization Groups: Strategies for Building Social - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

KRISTEN BOTTEMA

PH.D. CANDIDATE, JOINT DOCTORAL PROGRAM IN SPECIAL EDUCATION UC BERKELEY AND SFSU NATIONAL STUDENT SPEECH LANGUAGE HEARING ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE APRIL 24, 2010 SFSU

Teen Peer Socialization Groups: Strategies for Building Social Networks for Adolescents with ASD

Overview

 Issues of Peer Interaction for Adolescents with ASD  Describing Social Interaction  Are Social Skills Really Skills?  Integrated Teen Social Groups  Facilitating Interaction  Current Research Findings  Caveats and Solutions  Questions/Comments

What are the social experiences of adolescents with ASD?

 Adolescents with autism experience fewer friendships,

social activities, and recreational outings than their typical peers

 Middle and High school has difficulties for all students,

but especially students with ASD

 Individuals with autism are at risk for poor adult health

• utcomes including depression, anxiety,

underemployment, and lack of community access

 Bullying and active exclusion from typical peers

(Bauminger & Kasari, 2000; Ghaziuddin, Ghaziuddin, & Greden, 2002; Humphrey & Lewis, 2008; Orsmond, Krauss, & Seltzer, 2004)

Processes Involved in Social Interaction

 Top Down Processes

 Social/historical conventions  Classroom Rules  More rigid and pre-determined

 Bottom Up Processes

 Negotiation of new norms created by group participants

themselves

 More fluid and dynamic  Indicative of closeness in peer relationships

 Feed back on and influence one another

(Ochs, Kremer-Sadlik, Sirota, & Solomon, 2004)

Navigating the Social World

 In order to participate in social contexts, a social

member must be able to:

 Track and interpret actions  Note stances of others  Link actions and stances to expectations  Contextualize actions, stances, and participants through time

within the general activity

 Coordinate several activities occurring at one time  Know how and when to change conventional ways of

participating

(Ochs, 2002)

Navigating the Social World

 Participants must also be able to signal to

• thers in culturally understood ways:

 Actions being performed  Social activity  Psychological stances

 Affective stance  Epistemic stance

 Social identity

 Social roles, statuses, and relationships  Community, institutional, ethnic, socioeconomic, and gender

(Ochs, 2002)

Skills vs. a ‘Feel for the game’

 Can the above abilities be taught as discrete skills?

Are they discrete skills?

 Social competence might better be described as a

‘feel for the game’

 Embodied practice  Having and knowing skills can be a ‘roof without a

foundation’

(Carr, 2007; Klin, Jones, Schultz, & Volkmar, 2003; Nelson, 2007; Ochs, Solomon, & Sterponi; Sterponi & Fasulo, 2010)

Integrated Teen Social Groups

Goals of Social Groups

 Foster motivation for being social through positive

social experience

 Guide teens with ASD in creating and maintaining

their own social lives

 Provide entryway into a legitimate peer culture  Educate typical teens about individuals with ASD

through direct experience and active discussion

(Carr, 2007; Wolfberg, 2003)

Organizing a Group

• Find teens with similar interests

– Harry Potter fanatics – Video game aficionados – Craft lovers

• Group size should reflect comfort level of participants with
• ASD. Ratio should be 1:1 or higher
• Be sure that the group is culturally integrated into

surrounding setting

Setting Social Group Examples After School Comic book club Lunch time Board game lunch bunch Summer Camp Team building workshop

Social Group Structure

 Personal updates

Round-robin or free discussion

 Previously Chosen activity  Clean-up  Discuss and choose the next activity

Validate all ideas; suggest adjustments so that

activities are age appropriate and can involve everyone

Cooperation is key

Facilitating Interaction

Elicit Buy-in From All Group Members

 Encourage members to make the group their

• wn, and come up with mutually enjoyable

activities

 Frame group meetings as legitimate social

experiences with all members on equal footing

 Avoid a tutoring dynamic  If volunteer credit, extra-credit, or other enticements

are given to typical peers, these should be faded with time

 If typical peers are volunteering, find volunteer

activities for the whole group to do once a month

 Encourage group members to just be the themselves

Adapt Activities to Reflect Everyone’s Interests

Example: Dawn and Kara are two 16- year old peers in a social group with Celia, also 16, who is diagnosed with PDD-NOS. During a discussion about which activities the girls should do at the next social group meeting, Celia has suggested that the group color in coloring books. Dawn and Kara look skeptical that this will be a fun activity. What should the facilitator do to help guide a legitimate social experience?

Some Ideas for Adjustment:

 Instead of a coloring project, frame the activity as an

art project

 Instead of crayons, provide materials that might be

enticing to they typical peers like pastels, paints, colored pencils

 Other suggestions:

 Create holiday greeting cards  Paint ceramic mugs or saucers  Decorate flower pots with paint or other materials

 Not everyone has to have the same role for each

activity

Scaffolding Interaction

 Facilitator as ‘context engineer’  Insert suggestions, not directives  Decrease and increase support as needed  Point out Shared Interests and Commonalities  As social groups move forward, the peers scaffold

interaction on their own

 Remember that facilitator actions are PART OF the

social interaction

 It isn’t possible to ‘step outside of’ or ‘correct’ interactions,

• nly to reframe them

(Fasulo & Fiore, 2007; Wolfberg, 2003)

Act as Interpreter

 Simple explanations for behavior that might appear

• dd will go a long way

 Interpret communicative attempts made by

participants with ASD

 Interpretation can work both ways; typical peers as

well as participants with ASD might need explanations

Facilitate Discussion About Diversity, Inclusion, and Problem Solving

 Don’t let difference be the elephant in the room  Group members should come to understand why its

important to include everyone

 All group members should leave with a better sense

• f how to negotiate and compromise

 Equality vs. Equity

(Nucci, 2001; Wolfberg, McCracken, & Tuchel, 2009)

What Happens in Social Groups? Research Findings

 2 qualitative pilot studies  Social group makeup:

 Four girls; two typically developing, two with ASD; aged 13-17  Three girls; two typically developing, one with ASD; aged 12-14

 A total of 23 hours of video taped sessions  Groups took place in community settings  Participant observation/facilitator

Navigating the Social World

 Participants with ASD were able to engage in

complex interactions with peers

 Participants with ASD employed multiple resources

to structure participation

 Members asserted individual and group identities  ‘Top Down’ processes and perceptions of individuals

with ASD impacted interaction and the appearance

• f ASD symptomology

 ‘Bottom Up’ processes resulted in new conventions

that were inclusive of participants with ASD

Bottom-up Processes

 Conventionalization

Bottom-up Processes

 Structuring Participation

Bottom-up Processes

 Structuring Identities

Top Down Social Processes

 Deciding when and how to include

Caveats and Solutions

 Finding time for social groups  Recruiting group members  Including developmentally diverse group members  Incorporating appropriate behavior plans

Future Research

 Social Groups at Strawberry Canyon Camp  Integrated into leaders-in-training program  Ages 12-18  Ask me for details/brochure

Questions/Comments? For more information, contact Kristen Bottema; Kbottema@berkeley.edu

References

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• autism. Philosophical transcripts of the royal society of London, 358, 345- 360.

Nelson, K. (2007). Young minds in social worlds: Experience, meaning, and memory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Nucci, L. (2001). Education in the moral domain. UK: Cambridge University Press. Ochs, E. (2002). Becoming a speaker of culture. In C. Kramsch (Ed.) Language acquisition and language socialization: Ecological perspectives (pp. 99- 120). London: Continuum Press Ochs, E. Kremer-Sadlik, T., Sirota, K.G., & Solomon, O. (2004). Autism and the social world: An anthropological

• perspective. Discourse studies, 6, 147- 183.

Ochs, E. Solomon, O., & Sterponi, L. (2005). Limitations and transformations of habitus in child-directed communication. Discourse studies, 7, 547- 583. Orsmond, G.I., Krauss, M.W., & Seltzer, M.N. (2004). Peer relationships and social and recreational activities among adolescents and adults with autism. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 34, 245- 256. Sterponi, L., & Fasulo, A. How to go on: Intersubjectivity and progressivity in a child with autism. Ethos, 38, 116-142. Wolfberg, P.J. (2003). Peer play and the autism spectrum: The art of guiding children’s socialization and imagination. Shawnee Mission, Kansas: Autism Asperger publishing Company. Wolfberg, P., McCracken, H., & Tuchel, T. (2009). Fostering peer play and friendships: Creating a culture of inclusion. In P. Wolfberg and K.D. Buron (Eds.), Learners on the autism spectrum: Preparing highly qualified educators (pp. 182- 207). Shawnee Mission, KS: Autism Asperger Publishing Company.