Social skills development of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder attending an inclusive preschool classroom

Objectives. - Inclusive preschool classrooms have been recently created (since 2014) in France for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, giving them access to regular schools while adjusting to their specific needs. In these preschool small units, educative and mental health staff work together to support children's communicative and learning skills in order to help them to progressively attend regular classes in the same school. International research has reported the benefits of inclusive education on children with ASD, but studies mainly concerned children in full inclusion in regular classrooms, whose constraints, even with adapted programs, may not be suitable for all of them, especially young children. Moreover, studies conducted in specialized as well as in regular classrooms showed that the frequency and functional quality of the children's communicative exchanges may greatly vary, depending on the interlocutor and on the requirements of school situations (structured or unstructured). In this paper, we present a longitudinal study about communication development from age three to six in children with ASD attending an inclusive preschool program. On the basis of direct observations of situations filmed in class, variations of social communication were systematically examined as a function of partners (adults vs. peers), degree of structuration (work vs. free play), and over time.Methods. - Participants were seven children with ASD, aged 3 at the beginning of the study and attending the same preschool inclusive unit. They were regularly videotaped (twice a year during three years) in two types of classroom situations: structured (working) and unstructured (free play), interacting with adults and peers. Data reported here are for the comparison between the first and the last collection point (three years vs. six years). Videos were coded using a structured microanalysis grid to capture the quality (forms and functions) of social and communicative behaviors of children and of their partners. In parallel, standardized evaluations were conducted on children's clinical and developmental characteristics.Results. - Data analysis showed a differentiated progression in quantity and quality of communication observed in preschool inclusive classrooms according to contextual parameters. Children's social-communicative engagement was generally more frequent in structured than unstructured activities, but initiations progressed over time in unstructured activities. Children interacted much more often with adults than with peers, with no significant increase in this gap over the years. The quality of children's communication improved both in forms and functions, but to varying degrees depending on the context. During structured activities, children became more able to use multimodal coordination (e.g., verbal/nonverbal) within the same communicative act while during unstructured activities they more often use one modality communicative acts. Concerning the purpose of interactions, children most often communicate for instrumental purposes than for social sharing purposes, a difference that persisted over time. A single subject analysis revealed important variations in pace and extent of developmental change between three and six years, with an increased progression observed in children with initial higher social and cognitive developmental levels.Conclusions. - Findings are discussed in the perspective of optimizing the implementation of inclusive preschool educative settings for children with ASD. In particular, three points seem to deserve reinforced support: (a) to promote opportunities for children's initiatives in addition to soliciting responses; (b) to enhance the opportunities for social sharing; (c) to support peer-to-peer interactions during play or work co-activities.& COPY; 2022 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.