Abstract
Conversation skills are an important intervention focus for verbally fluent school-aged
children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Three sets of approaches
for supporting conversation skills are reviewed. Pragmatic language approaches focus
on teaching the verbal and nonverbal skills needed to initiate and maintain conversations
including strategies for recognizing and repairing communication breakdowns. Social
skill approaches focus on similar conversation behaviors, but these behaviors are
usually taught for use within specific social tasks such as entering peer groups,
maintaining interactions, and resolving conflicts. Peer-focused approaches enlist
the support of peers through direct teaching of strategies to engage and maintain
conversations with students with ASD (i.e., peer-mediated interventions) or through
environmental arrangement strategies to promote interactions between students with
and without ASD (i.e., peer networks). Conversation interventions that incorporate
strategies from all three sets of approaches are most likely to promote optimal outcomes.
These outcomes include opportunities for students with ASD to develop and refine conversation
skills with classmates who are more open to interactions with peers of differing abilities.
Keywords
Autism spectrum disorder - pragmatic language - social skills - peer-mediated intervention
- peer supports - peer networks
