Universal Journal of Educational Research 3(12): 1001-1007, 2015 http://www.hrpub.

org
DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2015.031208

Social Skills Deficits in Autism: A Study among Students

with Austim Spectrum Disorder in Inclusive Classrooms
Kee Jiar Yeo, Kie Yin Teng*

Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia

Copyright©2015 by authors, all rights reserved. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under the
terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License

Abstract Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder communicating their thoughts [3,4]. To express themselves,
(ASD) who lack of social skills have been hindered from students with ASD exhibit unconventional behaviors such as
being included in IE classrooms. The purpose of this study being aggressive, throwing tantrums or injuring themselves
was to identify the most frequently occurring social skills [5]. However, their ability to communicate varies depending
deficits area among students with ASD in IE classrooms so on their intellectual and social growth [6]. Thus, students
that the mainstream teachers will be ready and well with ASD are often recognized first by their social ineptness
prepared to cater to their special educational needs (SEN) and communication failure.
accordingly in order to yield more effective educational During the playing time, students with ASD may keep to
outcomes. A total of 34 teachers in three schools with themselves instead of joining their peers [7,8]. In fact,
inclusive classrooms in Johor state, Malaysia were involved students with ASD should be integrated with normal
in this study. The instrument used in the current study was students in order to develop academic, social and emotional
adapted from TRIAD Social Skills Assessment (TSSA) by learning [9]. Sawitree [10] found that the learning of
Vanderbilt Kennedy Center. The instrument was adapted students with ASD is influenced by the development of
and consisting of a 41-items survey form which assess the social interaction with their peers. Furthermore, an
knowledge and skills of students with ASD in three areas, important study done by Howlin & Goode [11] has stated
namely cognitive, behavioral and affective. The findings that students with ASD lack of social competencies, which
showed the most observed social skills deficits fall under is one of the important elements required in their future
behavioral and affective areas. Comparison of the three working environment and their quality of life.
areas in social skills using repeated measures analyses Frith [12] further proposed that the social and
indicated that there was a significant difference among the communication deficits may impact academic performance
scores of three areas among the students with ASD. The including restricted interests, concrete and literal thinking,
implications of practice were discussed. difficulties with solving problems, lack of organizational
abilities, and having difficulty deciphering information.
Keywords Social Skills, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Teaching students with ASD in forming relationship and
Inclusive Education understanding the feelings of others are likely to be more
important than academic learning as social skills is the
greatest area of weakness among students with ASD [13,14].
Therefore, schools should take up the responsibilities to
1. Introduction enhance the social skills among the students with ASD.
However, many professionals believe that the schools do
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is characterized by not play their part in catering the social and emotional needs
deficits in two core domains: deficits in social of students with ASD [15].
communication and social interaction; restricted repetitive In light of that, an appropriate educational programme is
patterns of behavior, interests and activities [1]. Their social critical to students with ASD. Lovaas [16] and Smith [17]
skills deficits are characterized by poor eye contact, lack of argued that students with ASD can benefit from a more
joint attention, pedantic or odd speech patterns, difficulty typical educational setting if they are being provided with
both initiating and maintaining conversations, lack of social an appropriate educational and interventional experience in
problem-solving ability, lack of empathy, and difficulties their young age. They need educational curriculum and
interpreting body language [2]. Students with ASD are programme that focus on improving numerous types of
having difficulties in developing their language skills and skills especially in their social skills [18]. To develop social
understanding what they hear as well as difficulty in skills, students with ASD need to have the opportunity to
1002 Social Skills Deficits in Autism: A Study among Students with Austim Spectrum Disorder in Inclusive Classrooms

participate and interact in a variety of natural environments Unchalee et al. [9] had identified the three problematic
where appropriate model, natural cue and stimuli as well as social skills among students with ASD: the self-control
functional reinforces are available. IE placement provides behavior, the communications skills and working in a team.
this access to peer models and social opportunities [19]. However, students with ASD in IE will be difficult to
Inclusion among students with disabilities in the general succeed in school due to their limited social skills [38].
classroom setting has become the international movement
since the mid-to-late 1980s [20,21]. The students with ASD A. Cognitive
will benefit from the planned contact with their The largest predictor of outcome among the population of
non-disabled peers in the same classroom [14]. With the ASD is cognitive level [39]. Cognitive involves the ability to
implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 recognize and understand others’ feelings [40]. Previous
and the reauthorization of IDEA in 1997 and 2004, the research have shown that children with ASD’s significant
emphasis on educating students with ASD in the general symptoms such as poor social-emotional reciprocity and
education setting has increased dramatically [22]. nonverbal communication skills impairments [41]. They are
Inclusive education (IE) is provided mainly based on all able to respond to others’ emotions but they always fail to
the children’s right to access to high quality education identify others’ thoughts [42]. Besides that, they show
alongside their peers regardless of their disability [23]. impairments in theory of mind [43] and process facial
Since the last three decades, the concept of IE has been expressions [44]. As mentioned above, children with ASD
accepted [24]. There are many researches being done on the are having poor cognitive empathy [45,46]. Despite the
effects of IE towards students with learning disabilities [25]. deficits on cognitive ability, the researchers are also concern
Koegel et al. [26] proved that IE among disabled children on other areas of social skills such as behavioral and
will help them to improve in their social skills and perform affective.
better in their academic. According to Allen and Cowdery B. Behavioral
[27], Inclusive Education (IE) develops the children’s social
skills. Unchalee et al. [9] found that the students with ASD are
In line with the children’s rights movement, Malaysia has lacking of communications skills in social interaction. They
taken its initiative to advocate special education in the never greet, express appreciation and have eye contact
during interaction and are unable to accept failure and work
Malaysian Education Act 1996 [28] for the children with
in a team with their peers too. Limsila [47] revealed that
SEN who have learning difficulty or disability that hinder
students with ASD always have one-way or being unusual
them from making use of educational facilities provided in
during their interaction with others. The level of their social
schools. Besides that, in the Education (Special Education)
behavior is mostly lower than their age. They do not bother
Regulations 2013 [29], the students with SEN will be
about the things or the people surrounded. Students with
provided with Special Education either in special schools or
ASD find that it is difficult to join groups or make friends as
schools which implement Special Education Integrated
they will not tell ‘little white lies’ and often cause offence
Program (SEIP) or IE Program at all school levels.
without being aware [48].
Government of Malaysia has put in lots of effort to
improve the quality of IE among the students with special C. Affective
needs. Based on the Salamanca Statement and Framework
Affective refers to emotional resonance which share
for Action on Special Needs Education [20] and the Persons
others’ feelings [40]. All three components of affective such
with Disabilities (PWD) Act (2008) [30], Ministry of
as verbal responding, vocal intonation and facial expression
Education of Malaysia (MOE) set up its mission to give full
are at the heart of the expression of emotion [49]. Deficits in
and equal participation to those students with special needs
affective among people with ASD will hinder them from
in education as stated in National Education Blueprint
responding appropriately for the initiation and maintaining
(2013-2025) [31]. social interaction with others [40]. Gena [51] stated that
The latest research reported the prevalence of ASD has people with ASD give affective responses sometimes, but
increased to 1 out of 64 [32]. Children with ASD are they do so non-contextually.
characterized by marked impairments in reciprocal social
interaction, communication, and by repetitive and restricted
interests and behaviours [33,34]. They will suffer throughout
their lifetime [35]. As such, they are facing the greatest
2. Objectives
challenges to navigate to the social world. There are two main objectives in this research. The first
Social skills are often described as a set of abilities that one is to identify the social skills deficits among students
enable children to respond in acceptable ways to certain with ASD which involve three areas namely cognitive,
social requests [36]. There are three main areas of behavioural and affective. The second objective is to
development, the triad of impairments: social interaction, determine the significant differences between the three
communication and rigidity of behavior and thought, where areas in social skills among students with ASD in IE
people with ASD manifest differences [37]. classrooms.
 Universal Journal of Educational Research 3(12): 1001-1007, 2015 1003

3. Materials and Methods Table 1. Descriptive Statistics on Cognitive, Behavioral and Affective
Areas in Social Skills among Students with ASD
The Social Skills Teacher Rating Form in TRIAD Social Mean Std. Deviation N
Skills Assessment (TSSA) has been used as instrument in Cognitive 2.6324 .6777 34
this study by the participants to assess their students with Behavioral 2.2794 .7302 34
ASD’s social skills in IE classrooms. This is criterion-based Affective 2.3824 .7288 34
instrument which assesses the students with ASD’s
knowledge and skills in three areas: (a) cognitive, (b) This findings related to the areas of social skills among
behavioral and (c) affective. students with ASD were partially consistent with [9] which
The cognitive area assesses the child’s ability to showed that behavioral as one of the problematic social
understand other people’s perspectives. Whereas, the skills.
behavioural aspect look into the child’s ability to initiate
and maintain interaction as well as respond appropriately to 4.2. Inferential
others. Finally, the affective element evaluates the child’s
Table 2. Mauchly’s Test
ability to understand others’ basic and complex emotions.
Within Subjects Mauchly’s Approx.
df Sig.
Effect W Chi-Square
3.1. Participants
Social Skills .957 1.423 2 .491
In this study, the informants consisted of 34 teachers of
students with ASD in inclusive education classrooms in 3 Table 2 above indicated that Mauchly’s test statistic is
government primary schools in Johor. non-significant where χ2(2)=1.42, p=.49. It is then
reasonable to conclude that the variances of differences
3.2. Procedure between the three areas in social skills are not significantly
Based on data obtained from Johor State Education different, meaning they are roughly equal. Thus, we can
Department (JPNJ), there are only 3 students with ASD assume that the sphericity has been met.
being included in IE classrooms for Johor state. To carry out Table 3. Tests of Within-Subjects Effects
the data collection, researcher selected purposive sampling
and approached the whole population of teachers who were Source F Sig.
involving in IE. The participants were given the informed Sphericity Assumed 5.719 .005
consent form and a set of questionnaire to be filled in during Greenhouse-Geisser 5.719 .006
their appointment with researcher. Researcher briefed them Social Skills
Huynh-Feldt 5.719 .005
on the purpose and explained the items. Researcher collected
the questionnaire and informed consent form right after the Lower-bound 5.719 .023
participants completed the task.
From Table 3, one way repeated measure ANOVA using
Greenhouse-Geisser criterion showed that there is a
3.3. Data Analysis
significant difference among the scores of three areas namely
Descriptive analyses method has been used to find out cognitive, behavioral and affective (F=5.719, P=.006),
the mean of cognitive, behavioural and affective areas in the which implied an unequibilirium in social skills among
students with ASD’s social skills. Besides that, repeated students with ASD.
measures were used as inferential analyses to determine the
Table 4. Pairwise Comparisons
significant differences among the three areas in social skills
among students with ASD. Social Skills Mean Std. Deviation Sig.
Behavioral .353 .096 .002
Cognitive
Affective .250 .114 .107
4. Results & Discussions Cognitive -.353 .096 .002
Behavioral
4.1. Descriptive Affective -.103 .111 1.000
Cognitive -.250 .114 .107
Table 1 and Figure 1 showed that, on average, the Affective
participants reported relatively high level of knowledge and Behavioral .103 .111 1.000
skills possessed by students with ASD in cognitive area
(M=2.6324, SD=0.67766). Whereas, students with ASD The results in Table 4 indicated that there is a difference
have the most observed social skills deficits fall under the between the three areas in social skills using Bonferroni for
areas of behavioral (M=2.2794, SD=0.73021) and affective the post hoc tests. There is a significantly difference between
(M=2.3824, SD=0.72883). cognitive and behavioral (P=.002 < .05).
1004 Social Skills Deficits in Autism: A Study among Students with Austim Spectrum Disorder in Inclusive Classrooms

Figure 1. Areas of Social Skills Deficits of Children with ASD

5. Discussion teachers. Besides that, various researches have been carried

out looking into the best teaching strategies for these
The Ministry of Health (MOH), Malaysia revealed that the included students with ASD.
prevalence figure of children with ASD is on the rise. In year Simpson [59] proposed that teachers need to be equipped
2012, 6% of detected and registered special needs cases aged with the basic management skills for mainstream and
from 1-18 years old were autism as compared to 5% in year special education as well as special skills in relation to
2011 [52]. Due to high demands from the parents, Malaysia students with ASD in order to provide effective education
has started IE practices among students with ASD officially to the students. According to Toran et al. [60], teachers
in Year 2005 under a collaboration effort between the need to understand the characteristics of their students with
Ministry of Education (MOE) and the National Autism ASD.
Society of Malaysia [53]. However, the transformation of the Therefore, this study on social deficits has played its
education system has presented great challenges, specifically crucial role in IE practice of Malaysia. The empirical
the mainstream teachers [54]. findings will be useful in helping to produce the effective
Based on a study which is being carried out by Zuri and teaching modules for students with ASD. Besides that, more
Aznan [55], the result showed that approximately 68% of systematic and well-planned teacher education and
teachers have moderate and negative perceptions towards the professional training can be provided to teachers based on
implementation of IE. According to another local study the priority of SEN in the three aspects of social skills
conducted by Nornadia et al. [56], the findings showed that deficits, namely cognitive, behavioral and affective among
the teachers were not prepared to teach children with ASD in students with ASD. With that, hopefully teachers in IE
their classrooms as they were not familiar with the classrooms will be more confident and knowledgeable in
characteristics of children with ASD and did not understand managing the classrooms as well as yielding a more
the importance of IE. This finding resonates with the effective education outcome.
findings of Chhbra et al. [57] and De Boer et al. [58]. The
factors which contributed to the negative attitudes among
teachers included the type of disabilities of students, lacking 6. Conclusions
of resources, support and professional training [58].
Nornadia et al. [56] stated that the awareness of the SEN In short, children with ASD who are included will benefit
among students with ASD in IE classrooms have been in different ways and to different degrees on the three areas
highlighted within the education field of Malaysia. Various of social skills deficits namely behavioral, affective and
courses and professional training are being conducted for cognitive in IE classrooms. In light of this, effective
 Universal Journal of Educational Research 3(12): 1001-1007, 2015 1005

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