22 Sunny Kim, Brittany Koegel and Lynn Kern Koegel
interacting with their peers and exhibit low responsiveness, limited or nonexistent
initiations, reduced conversational reciprocity, and an overall difficulty sustaining
social engagement (DiSalvo and Oswald, 2002; Knott, Dunlop and Mackay, 2006).
Moreover, students with ASD rarely engage in reciprocal social interactions with
typically developing peers (Koegel, Koegel, Frea, and Fredeen, 2001) and are at
great risk for social isolation, poor friendships, and loneliness (Bauminger and
Kasari, 2000).
This lack of socialisation can also lead to long-term consequences for students
with ASD. For example, these social impairments may increase the risk of stu-
dents with ASD to develop secondary co-morbid disorders such as social anxi-
ety (Gillott, Furniss and Walter, 2001; Wood and Gadow, 2010) and/or depression
(Kim, Szatmari, Bryson, Streiner, and Wilson, 2000; Stewart, Barnard, Pearson,
Hasan, and O’Brien, 2006; Strang, Kenworthy, Daniolos, Case, Martin and Wallace,
2012). Simonoff, Pickles, Charman, Chandler, Loucas and Baird (2008) found that
individuals with ASD are up to 29.2 per cent more likely to develop a co-morbid
diagnosis of social anxiety compared to the general population. Strang, Kenworthy,
Daniolos, Case, Martin and Wallace (2012) found that 30 per cent of their sample
was in the clinical range for depression, which is a much higher rate than the gen-
eral population.
Students with ASD also report to be lonelier than their typically developing
peers (Lasgaard, Nielsen, Eriksen, and Goossens, 2010; Locke, Ishijima, Kasari, and
London, 2010). While these students yearn for friends (Beresford, Tozer, Rabiee,
and Sloper, 2007), their lack of social skills hinders their ability to form meaningful
friendships with typically developing peers. Instead, these students are often bullied
and teased in schools because of their differences (Humphrey and Symes, 2011;
Roekel, Scholte and Didden, 2010; Symes and Humphrey, 2010).
Importance of social interventions for students with ASD
In order to address the social deficits in students with ASD and ameliorate the pos-
sible co-morbid risk factors faced by these students, it is imperative to provide social
interventions. The literature suggests that targeting social areas in natural environ-
ments, such as school settings, are ideal because of the constant access to typically
developing peers and because such settings have the greatest potential for generali-
sation (Koegel and Koegel, 2012; Koegel, Robinson and Koegel, 2009).
The available literature on social interventions for students with ASD offers
some direction for researchers and practitioners. For example, having a structured
and predictable environment has been shown to improve social skills in students
with ASD (Ferrara and Hill, 1980; Mesibov and Shea, 1996). The involvement of
typically developing peers has also been shown to be an effective intervention
strategy for improving social interactions between students with ASD and typi-
cally developing peers (DiSalvo and Oswald, 2002; Harper, Symon and Frea, 2008;
Rogers, 2000; Smith, Lovaas and Lovaas, 2002). Research also suggests that imple-
menting the intervention in natural environments (such as the school setting) can