Improving Peer Relationships in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often struggle to form lasting relationships with peers. This occurs largely for two reasons: Children with ASD experience different social needs and expectations, and typically developing peers (TYPs) tend to hold negative views of children with ASD. These negative attitudes can limit children with ASD’s access to peer interaction, increase their risk of victimization, and increase their likelihood of perpetrating physical aggression despite a lack of intent to bully. Educators often struggle with determining the best plan of action towards overcoming such conflicts and imbalance in these relationships between students with ASD and their TYPs. Many interventions attempt to focus on altering behavior in children with ASD, however, such efforts cannot simply remove or alter the symptoms of ASD. Therefore, for the sake of improving peer relationships on behalf of children with ASD, teachers and specialists must, instead, openly communicate with and guide TYPs to better view and interact with their peers with ASD.