Self-regulation and social interaction skills among children with autism across time

Abstract

Purpose – In the current study, the purpose of this paper is to examine the self-regulation and social interaction skills of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) as compared to children with intellectual disabilities (IDs) across time. Design/methodology/approach – Drawn from the Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study (SEELS), our sample consisted of 1,016 children diagnosed with ASD and 597 children diagnosed with ID. The self-regulation and social interaction skills were measured using relevant subscales of the Scales of Independent Behavior-Revised across three time points evenly spaced at two years apart. Findings – Results revealed that children with ASD have significantly worse self-regulation (p<0.01, η2=0.12, Cohen's f=0.36) and social interaction skills (p<0.01, η2=0.05, Cohen's f=0.21) as compared to children with ID across time. The results of the current study support the results of Bieberich and Morgan (2004) that children with ASD have significantly worse self-regulation and social interaction skills as compared to children with ID across time. Originality/value – The paper suggests that our results may be considered as more generalizable given the utilization of data from the SEELS as a large, nationally representative, and community-based sample of children with disabilities across the USA examined longitudinally.