Teaching Social Skills to Non-Verbal Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Challenges for Special Educationists Working in Private Special Education Institutes of Lahore City

This study was aimed to find out the challenges of special educationists in teaching social skills to non-verbal children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The population consisted of special education teachers working in special education centers in Punjab province of Pakistan. 75 special educationists working in special education centers selected through random sampling technique as research participants working in the Private special education centers in Lahore City. A self-developed and validated questionnaire was formulated on a Likert-type scale consisting of twenty-five statements for teachers to get responses. The study results showed that most of the teachers were facing challenges in teaching social skills to non-verbal children with autism spectrum disorder. The study recommended that special educationists encourage the non-verbal children with ASD to initiate the production of sounds using specialized intervention like Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), ABBLES and Links to Language. Special educationists need to plan social skill tasks based on Discrete Trial Training (DTT) individually for every nonverbal child with ASD and prepare the social routine program for each child.