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Working with Others—Compromising
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Foreword
After the publication of the
Social Skills Picture Book
(Baker, 2001), I received many calls and emails from families and teachers
telling me that their students seemed highly motivated and interested in learning from the pictures. This feedback was certainly what I
had hoped for, as it had been my experience with the students with whom I had worked. Then I began to receive more and more calls
and emails asking if I could put together a similar picture book for older students.
Although many teens liked looking at the pictures in the previous publication (which depicts mostly elementary-aged children), the
teens could not easily relate to those younger students. Thus I began to make picture books for older, high school students, using the
more sophisticated situations that these students often face, including peer conflicts, dating, employment, and classroom situations.
I sincerely wish for you and your teens to have fun using these picture books and making your own. To build the desire to
socialize, lessons must be enjoyable. For more information on skill lessons for high school students and ideas to make lessons fun,
the interested reader might also want to read
Preparing for Life: The Complete Guide to Transitioning to Adulthood for those with
Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome
(Baker, 2005). That book contains over seventy written skill lessons. A subset of those skills has been
depicted here in picture form to create the
Social Skills Picture Book for High School and Beyond
.
PART ONE
xi
The Autism Spectrum and the Importance of Visual Aids
Asperger’s Syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorders
Autism Spectrum Disorders
(also known as Pervasive Developmental Disorders) constitute a wide range of symptoms that affect
an individual’s sensory, cognitive, motor, language, and social-emotional development. Asperger’s Syndrome, autism, and Pervasive
Developmental Disorder–Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) are some of the most common Autism Spectrum Disorders.
The autism spectrum is considered a “spectrum” because the individuals who comprise it vary greatly from each other.
Intellectually, some fall in the mentally retarded range while others clearly fall in the superior intellectual range. Asperger’s Syndrome
and High-Functioning Autism involve, by definition, individuals with average to above average intellectual ability and better
communication skills than those with more “classic” autism who tend to have lower intellectual functioning and more communication
difficulties. Those who have symptoms of an Autism Spectrum Disorder but do not meet the full criteria for a specific diagnosis like
autism or Asperger’s Syndrome are typically given the diagnosis PDD-NOS. This actually represents the largest category of individuals
on the spectrum, which means that although we can identify individuals on the spectrum, the diagnostic process is not yet good at
making specific differential diagnoses among Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Current diagnostic criteria describe Autism Spectrum Disorders as involving difficulties in three general areas: (a) qualitative
impairment in social interactions (e.g., impairment in responding to or initiating interactions with others, or failure to form peer
relationships), (b) qualitative impairment in verbal and nonverbal communication (e.g., no mode of communication, or impairment
in the ability to initiate or sustain conversations), and (c) restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests or
activities (e.g., preoccupation with restricted patterns of interest, or inflexible adherence to nonfunctional routines or rituals) (American
Psychiatric Association, 1994).
Problems with social interaction can include difficulties initiating or responding to conversation, difficulties using or responding
to nonverbal gestures (e.g., pointing out objects), lack of or inconsistent eye contact, impairment in responding to others’ feelings,
difficulties working cooperatively with peers, and subsequent failure to develop peer relationships. Understanding what to do or say in
social situations is a core concern for autistic individuals.
Communication problems range from no ability to communicate and use language to more subtle difficulties with the flow of
conversation and social communication (pragmatic language). Some classically autistic individuals may have difficulties understanding
the meanings of most words and may show little spontaneous language communication. In contrast, those with High-Functioning
Autism and Asperger’s may appear to have excellent command of language in terms of their ability to express themselves and
xii
understand others, yet