them. Teachers also considered how they balanced the needs and desire of the children to sometimes be with others, and to sometimes spend time alone. Teachers reported children with autism to be the periphery of friendship groups rather than ‘on being either socially involved or socially [p. 308]. One of the key difficulties isolated’ in social interactions appeared to be the lack of understanding or ability to apply social rules, including negotiation, reciprocating concern and care and playing within the rules of a on supporting children with autism were also game. Teachers’ views sought by Frederickson, Lang and Jones (2010). Here, teachers reported feeling under-skilled in developing social skills, seen to be critical for children with autism. Some teachers discussed the lack of specialist input for social skills development, while one referred to a lack of time: ‘It would be nice if there was time for him and the other children to have a social skills section and play games and talk about rules, [p. 70]. etc, but not the time to do there’s just that’ One other useful method of exploring social inclusion of children with autism is social network analysis. Anderson and colleagues (2016) reported on one such study aiming to examine predictors of social connectivity in children with and without a diagnosis of autism attending primary mainstream schools. The analyses used social network modelling, and were able to consider the role of gender, age, class size and intellectual ability. Information was collected at two time points, around three months apart. Female students tended to fare better in larger classrooms, while male students showed greater social fragmentation in the same setting (classes with 20 students or more). During the primary school period in particular, children tend to prefer to play with children of their own sex. Anderson and colleagues suggest that for girls, having more female peers to choose from is advantageous, whereas for boys, whose relationships may rely more on physical and competitive play at this point, having a large same-sex peer group is less important. This study also noted the importance of quality of friendships over quantity. Children who had a greater number of social connections at the first time point, tended to show greater social fragmentation across time compared to those who had a few relationships at the first time point. It may be worth promoting good quality, solid friendships for children with autism in order for these to be maintained. Understanding social exclusion
them. Teachers also considered how they balanced the needs and desire of the children to sometimes be with others, and to sometimes spend time alone. Teachers reported children with autism to be ‘on the periphery of friendship groups rather than being either socially involved or socially isolated’ [p. 308]. One of the key difficulties in social interactions appeared to be the lack of understanding or ability to apply social rules, including negotiation, reciprocating concern and care and playing within the rules of a game. Teachers’ views on supporting children with autism were also sought by Frederickson, Lang and Jones (2010). Here, teachers reported feeling under-skilled in developing social skills, seen to be critical for children with autism. Some teachers discussed the lack of specialist input for social skills development, while one referred to a lack of time: ‘It would be nice if there was time for him and the other children to have a social skills section and play games and talk about rules, etc, but there’s just not the time to do that’ [p. 70]. One other useful method of exploring social inclusion of children with autism is social network analysis. Anderson and colleagues (2016) reported on one such study aiming to examine predictors of social connectivity in children with and without a diagnosis of autism attending primary mainstream schools. The analyses used social network modelling, and were able to consider the role of gender, age, class size and intellectual ability. Information was collected at two time points, around three months apart. Female students tended to fare better in larger classrooms, while male students showed greater social fragmentation in the same setting (classes with 20 students or more). During the primary school period in particular, children tend to prefer to play with children of their own sex. Anderson and colleagues suggest that for girls, having more female peers to choose from is advantageous, whereas for boys, whose relationships may rely more on physical and competitive play at this point, having a large same-sex peer group is less important. This study also noted the importance of quality of friendships over quantity. Children who had a greater number of social connections at the first time point, tended to show greater social fragmentation across time compared to those who had a few relationships at the first time point. It may be worth promoting good quality, solid friendships for children with autism in order for these to be maintained. Understanding social exclusion