What about social communication in Autism?

June 2, 2024 Ana Anselma

Autistics need intentional, real-time instruction in social communication and competency. If you remember one concept from this article is that in order to acquire social competency they need the words, actions and the thinking to communicate and socialize more successfully which includes them sharing their experience.

Since we opened the Social Mind Center, I have been the person who returns all the phone calls and does all the new client consultations. I have the opportunity to speak with many parents. Over the last two years, all callers have shared a consistent narrative. They will share that my child or teen has autism and has difficulty with social communication and developing relationships. They often add they have been in behavioral therapy for many years; they would like to shift the focus to building social skills. We have always heard some combination of these comments. The difference now is that these prospective clients are much older, some in middle and high school, struggling to communicate, self-manage needs, and build relationships.

In autism interventions and education, we have gone down a behavioral rabbit hole, and there are many aspects of the autistic condition that are being overlooked to the detriment of the autistic well-being. We are too focused on minimizing behaviors and maximizing compliance while overlooking the need to build skills that promote communication, self-advocacy, and connecting with others.

When one examines the diagnostic criteria for autism, there are two main characteristics: persistent differences in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts and restricted and repetitive behaviors. The secondary characteristics can become a barrier to learning and independent functioning, and one can see how behavioral intervention can easily take over. When communication development is not considered alongside behavioral management, it places the autistic in a disadvantaged position. An inability to communicate or access a communication device can cause enormous frustration, resulting in behaviors. The development of language and communication goes beyond labeling and vocabulary involving tasks/demands. Communication involves expressing one’s needs and desires and connecting with others.

One wonders how anyone can expect an autistic to navigate their world without the words to express their needs.

When we opened the Center twelve years ago, the reasoning was, in part, that it was the next step in my son Nick’s intervention to build communication and social skills. No centers were teaching social communication or competency. My son had been in speech and language intervention for many years. He had acquired the necessary language to navigate his days independently. This did not account for his social communication and pragmatic language. I understood from personal experience and research this area of communication would not develop intuitively or independently of instruction.

Dr. Savinelli and I recognized that for him to develop social language/communication, he needed guided real-time practice.

We created the Social Mind Center, where social groups teach social communication and competency.

Skills:

Social communication is how and why we use language to interact with other people.

Social understanding involves acquiring social knowledge about one’s and others’ mental actions (social cognition) and using this knowledge to plan, guide, and flexibly respond (executive function) to social interactions within a cultural or societal context (Carpendale & Lewis, 2006; Lewis & Carpendale, 2014).

Nick always showed much interest in connecting with his peers. For a long time, that desire was shown in how he would join in on activities or often stand near the peer group. He would observe, listen for a bit, and then join in. His peers did not wonder or notice that he was silent most of the time because he was attentive, engaged, and cooperative. Please note that by the time we opened the Social Mind Center, he had been in speech and language intervention for seven years since he was 2. I witnessed this continued need for him to be able to practice what to say and do in social scenarios. When Nick started in a social group, it was his dress rehearsal for interacting socially. He had an opportunity to have someone model the communication and receive instruction on the why behind this exchange. The social understanding instruction is more complex and requires lessons and discussions on what others think and planning one’s response. Social situations continuously evolve as the child ages, and the interactions become faster and less predictable, requiring continual skill building. There is also a self-awareness component. Learning one’s weaknesses and struggles in meeting social expectations and adopting strategies to bridge these skill gaps.

The goal of teaching and supporting autistic people is so that they have the skills to understand and meet their needs socially/emotionally. A component of this is their preferences in interactions and their comfort level in social situations. Often, the autistic perspective on friendship or connection is not considered. What friend is best suited for them? This requires instruction that acknowledges and respects that autistics have their process, requiring adjusting instruction to ensure they have the words and tools for the shared experiences they desire. Autistic people want to make connections and be part of the community. They also need to manage their needs for comfortable adaptation.

Strategy:

An opportunity to be in a group to learn how and why we use language to interact with other people is social communication. The ability to practice in real-time, showing them language and actions to connect in a social setting. They need to know how to respond to the expectations. Providing experience to allow for adapting to social environments is critical.

Be shown language and actions to initiate and sustain the engagement. The support guides the process always with respect and seeks their feedback.
They must be shown through modeling and role-playing the how and why to engage peers in this manner.
Exposure and equipping in reading the room and others’ intentions, thoughts, and feelings.
They must be encouraged and equipped to learn words to express their thoughts and feelings. Intellectually, not intuitively, they can navigate these concepts, some with more ease than others.

The key is that they must be exposed to the concept and context and receive intentional instruction in all the components of social communication: social interaction, understanding, pragmatics, and verbal/nonverbal communication.

Learning to adapt in social settings requires practice and the understanding that they will have to develop their process of adapting.

REFERENCES:

ASHA. Components of Social Communication. https://www.asha.org/practice-portal/clinical-topics/social-communication-disorder/components-of-social-communication/

ASHA. Social Communication. https://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/social-communication/

Nelson, N. (2010). Language and literacy disorders: Infancy through adolescence. Allyn & Bacon.

Carpendale, J., & Lewis, C. (2006). How children develop social understanding. Blackwell Publishing.

Grice, H. P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In P. Cole & J. L. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and semantics, Vol. 3: Speech acts (pp. 41–58). Academic Press

Hoff, E. (2014). Language development (5th ed.). Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Lewis, C., & Carpendale, J. (2014). Social cognition. In P. K. Smith & C. H. Hart (Eds.), The Wiley-Blackwell handbook of childhood social development (2nd ed., pp. 531–548). Wiley-Blackwell.

Nelson, N. (2010). Language and literacy disorders: Infancy through adolescence. Allyn & Bacon.

Rose-Krasnor, L. (1997). The nature of social competence: A theoretical review. Social Development, 6(1), 111–135. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9507.1997.tb00097.x

Westby, C., & Robinson, L. (2014). A developmental perspective for promoting theory of mind. Topics in Language Disorders, 34(4), 362–382.

Glossary:

Social communication is how and why we use language to interact with other people.

Using language for different reasons, such as greeting (saying “Hello” or “Good-bye”) or informing (saying, “I’m going to get a cookie”)
Changing language for the listener or situation, such as communicating differently in a public place than at home.
Following rules for conversations and storytelling, such as taking turns being a talker and being a listener;

Pragmatics is an area of social communication that focuses on goal-consistent language use in social contexts (Nelson, 2010).

It is the set of rules that individuals follow when using language in conversation and other social settings. Culturally responsive practice seeks to understand pragmatic norms specific to the student, client, or patient. Pragmatics includes both verbal and nonverbal communication.

Social understanding involves acquiring social knowledge about one’s and others’ mental actions (social cognition) and using this knowledge to plan, guide, and flexibly respond (executive function) to social interactions within a cultural or societal context (Carpendale & Lewis, 2006; Lewis & Carpendale, 2014).

Key abilities related to social cognition include the following:

theory of mind (ToM)
- identifying and understanding the mental states that others have (knowledge, forgetfulness, recall, desires, and intentions)—and understanding that they may differ from one’s own
- ability to connect emotional states to self and others
- ability to take the perspective of another and modify social behavior and language use accordingly
executive functioning (e.g., organization, planning, attention, problem solving, self-monitoring, future and goal-directed behavior)
implicit and explicit memory
- semantic, episodic, and autobiographical memory
joint attention (e.g., social orienting, establishing shared attention, monitoring emotional states, and considering another’s intentions)
inference
presupposition

Please note that ToM is a complex topic, and a full discussion of ToM is outside the scope of this document. Please see Westby and Robinson (2014) for further information.