Background: Children with ASD frequently display deficits in pragmatic language skills and social communication. Research on early skills that are associated with later conversation skills in children with ASD may inform targets for early intervention. Methods: This longitudinal study includes 23 children with ASD. At ages 3-4, play skills and joint attention skills were assessed. At age 8-9, children were given a conversation quality rating from ADOS, Module 3 interviews and interviews were coded for pragmatic skills using the Yale Adaptation of the Pragmatic Rating Scale (Y-PRS). Results: Analyses revealed significant associations between symbolic play type (p = .387) and frequency (p = .388). Other play skills and early social communication variables were non-significant. Conclusions: Symbolic play skills represent flexibility in play skills. The flexibility in play may allow children to further develop their representational, and social conversational abilities through multiple interactions with adults and peers.

Background

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often have difficulty establishing and maintaining friendships with peers. For highly verbal children with ASD in mainstream academic settings, these social difficulties may be exacerbated for those who also do not attend their neighborhood school. Propinquity, or proximity to peers, has been explored as a barrier for friendship development for typical children, but has not been extensively researched for children with ASD. This current study explores propinquity as distance from home to school as a potential barrier to friendship development for highly verbal children with ASD in mainstream classrooms.

Methods

This study employs a mixed methods design to explore the complexities of friendship development for children with ASD within their school environment. Correlations are used to explore associations between distance from home to school and observed peer engagement and social connections with classmates. Qualitative data is collected via a semi-structured interview to explore parent perceptions of the impact of propinquity on friendship development for their children with ASD.

Results

Quantitatively, associations between distance, peer engagement, social connections, and social rejections were not significant within the sample. Despite no differences in friendships, social nominations were significantly different for children who lived closer to school. Among parents, 5 central themes in regards to barriers for friendship development emerged: propinquity, attempts at social exposure, common social problems within ASD, siblings as a protective factor, and parent networks.

Discussion

This study used mixed methods to better understand the complexities of friendship development in children with ASD in their school environment. While it was hypothesized that one barrier to developing friendships might be attending a non-neighborhood school, this association was not strong in the sample. Findings might have been impacted by the lack of reported friendships overall and because most children in the sample did live close to their school. Both the quantitative and qualitative data suggested there were more significant challenges for children with ASD in developing friendships.