Reply to 'Socially motived" children with ASD

Forum Index » Kids With Special Needs and Disabilities

Reply to "'Socially motived" children with ASD"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Socially motivated and socially skilled are two very different things.

A child with autism can be extroverted.  They can enjoy the attention of peers, have warm loving relationships with their parents, and want to please their parents.  Many kids with autism, are motivated by things like clear expressions of approval from an adult, and interactions with peers.

However, the same child might have trouble putting that social motivation into action.  So, he might want his mother to smile and tell him good job, but be unable to figure out which behaviors make her smile.  He might want to interact with his friends, but not understand that they don't want to talk about ceiling fans for an hour.  He might love his teacher and have absolutely no idea why she's annoyed with him, leading him to repeat behavior that leads to the annoyance.

People often use the idea that a child is autism is not socially motivated as an excuse for exclusion.  They think that because a child isn't successful at seeking out social interactions, or might even have given up seeking out social interactions as a sign that they don't care, or that their feelings aren't hurt by exclusion.  Excluding a child with an ASD on the grounds that they don't care is like holding your party in attic and then assuming your quadriplegic friend must not have wanted to be there since they didn't show up.  [/quote]

It seems to me that there is a qualitative difference between kids who have little interest in people, and kids who just lack social skills. That does not seem like a spectrum to me. [/quote]

What kids are you talking about who have little interest in people?  Not having interest in people is not a symptom of ASD.  Not having social skills or awareness is the core symptom of ASD.  [/quote]

? Read the DSM 5 definition. It definitely includes lack of interest in social interaction as part of the definition. [/quote]

No it doesn't.  Can you provide a quote of the language that you believe indicates a lack of interest rather than a lack of skill?

[/quote]

Yes, it does! "Deficits in ... social interaction ... ranging from ... reduced sharing of interests, emotions, failure to initiate or respond to social interaction ... absence of interest in peers." Also read the paper I posted above that goes into lack of social motivation in autism.[/quote]

None of that states that it's a matter of motivation or interest rather than skills, other than the last part.  Lack of interest in peers is very different from lack of interest in other people.

The paper you posted starts off by stating that it's going against conventional wisdom in the field.  It's hardly well accepted doctrine.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics