Developing friendships is a basic human need that could help shape a person’s personality. Social skills could be the foundation that determines a child’s opportunities for growth in other areas of their life. There are different social skills interventions that could help improve social competencies in school age children. According to Kamps, Thiemann-Bourque, Heitzman-Powell, Schwartz, Rosenberg, Mason, & Cox (2015) social skills deficits could impact a child’s overall communication throughout their lifespan and reported improvement in combining direct instruction and peer-mediated approaches. The peer-mediated intervention also known as (PMI) is an evidence-based approach that is utilized to improve social and communication deficits in children with autism. The findings in Kamps, Thiemann-Bourque, Heitzman-Powell, Schwartz, Rosenberg, Mason, & Cox (2015) research demonstrated that approaches that encourage group interactions showed a growth in children taking initiation and better communication with peers. Being able to communicate with peers and take part in a group is considered great improvement in a child with autism. This is why is important for a child to have the opportunity to participate and be part of group settings at an early age in order to encourage socialization. Socialization exposure is important especially to a child with autism in which case they lack the ability to …show more content…
Language is a skill that takes a time to fully develop, and it is said that girls develop language skills faster than boys. Language skills in a child with autism depend greatly on the level of severity of the autism. It could go from making vocalizations to echolalia, which is when someone repeats what they hear, without a full understanding of what they are saying. Early intervention could help and aid parents/teachers to utilize techniques to improve language skills in children with autism. Utilizing pictures, sign language, and repetition could increase the chances of developing the necessary language skills in a child with autism. Children with autism might need an intervention that targets one of the core symptoms of autism which is language. According to Davis. T (2010), there is half of the individuals with autism that are non-verbal and the other half could have some level of verbal language along with other autism associated cognitive deficits. It is recommended to utilize a comprehensive intervention that relies on direct instructions and utilizes functional communication skills (Frey, Walker, Small, Feil, Seeley, & Forness, 2015). A child could tolerate and could find different communication skills easier to understand more than