The role of families in supporting social inclusion 145together in improving social inclusion of students with Autism Spectrum Disorder
across the spectrum.
Social inclusion: The role of the family
Difficulties in the area of social communication and social interaction are one
of the key characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder (American Psychiatric
Association, 2013), which result in poor peer relationships (Locke, Ishijima, Kasari
and London, 2010). Social isolation, social rejection and high levels of loneliness
experienced by children with Autism have been frequently reported (Jones and
Frederickson, 2010; Lasgaard, Nielsen, Eriksen and Goossens, 2010; Locke et al.,
2010), and this experience seems to continue into the adulthood of people with
ASD (Mazurek, 2014). Brown, Ouellette-Kuntz, Hunter, Kelley and Cobigo (2012)
studied the unmet needs of 101 Canadian families of school-aged children with
ASD, and highlighted the lack of friends children with ASD had, as well as the
lack of social activities available for them. Furthermore, they found an alarming
lack of available social skills training and programs, which are essential for social
inclusion of children and young people with ASD. Locke et al. (2010) studied 20
American adolescents with and without ASD and concluded that while adolescents
with ASD did identify their best friend, most of them remained isolated or on the
periphery of their classrooms. Similarly Chamberlain, Kasari and Rotheram-Fuller
(2007) found in their investigation of the involvement of 398 children with ASD
in American mainstream classrooms that while the participating children with ASD
avoided social isolation, they still remained on the periphery of the classroom, and
experienced lower acceptance than their neurotypical peers. Chamberlain et al.
refer in their findings to a case of a successfully included girl with ASD who had
the highest social network of all students with ASD included in the study. This was a
result of her mother’s intervention – after seeing her daughter being isolated during
breaks, she involved the teachers, therapists and parents of her daughter’s class-
mates. She and a speech therapist rehearsed social interactions with her daughter,
following social scripts. The mother also organised a party for her daughter’s girl-
friends. This example illustrates the crucial role that families of children with ASD
have in their child’s social inclusion, and to what extent home–school collaboration
is important to the process of social inclusion of students with ASD.
In their review of secondary school literature on social integration, social inclu-
sion and social participation, Bossaert, Colpin, Pijl and Petry (2013) identified the
following key themes: (a) reciprocal relationships (i.e., mutual friendship and social
networks or cohesive subgroups subthemes), (b) interactions (i.e., free time together,
working together on tasks, participation in group activities and social isolation
subthemes), (c) perception of the pupil with special educational needs (SEN) (i.e.,
self-perception of peer acceptance, self-perception of social interactions, satisfaction
at school and loneliness subthemes) and (d) acceptance by classmates (i.e., social
preference, social rejection, social support and bullying subthemes). All of these key
themes are areas of concern for families of children with disabilities (Overton and