Authors (including presenting author) :
Chan KC, Louie TM, Nip SY, But WS, Yuen MW
Affiliation :
Occupational Therapy Department, Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital
Introduction :
Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) commonly show deficits in their daily social functioning, which often results in challenging behaviors and induces caring stress on their caregivers.
Objectives :
To explore the common social functioning difficulties of primary school-aged children with ASD and ADHD
Methodology :
A questionnaire which stated with 13 common social functioning was provided to the caregivers of children with ASD and ADHD. Caregivers were invited to rate the severity of impairment for their children from 0 (no difficulty) to 5 (severe difficulty). Scoring 3 and above was indicative of significant difficulty perceived by their caregivers.
Result & Outcome :
From July 2018 to August 2018, 99 caregivers whose children attended occupational therapy social skill training group completed the questionnaire. Their children were aged from 6-12 years old, with the mean age of 8.7 years old. 60 children were studying at primary grade 1-3 and 39 children were studying at primary grade 4 -6. 85 children were males and 14 were females. 52 children were diagnosed of ASD and 47 were diagnosed of ASD comorbid with ADHD. Caregivers reported 5 major difficulties in the daily social functioning of their children: 1) difficulty in “perspective taking and understanding others’ thoughts” (87%), 2) difficulty in “emotion and anger management”(86%), 3) difficulty in “understanding the consequences of behaviors and recognizing others’ feelings” (86%), 4) difficulty in “recognizing and expressing emotion”(82%) and 5) difficulty in “understanding hidden agenda and metaphors”(82%). In addition to these 5 major social functioning difficulties, it was found that children with ASD commonly showed significant difficulty in “problem solving” (79%) whereas children with ASD comorbid with ADHD commonly showed significant difficulty in “recognizing others’ non-verbal social cues” (87%) as reported by their caregivers. Conclusions:
5 common social functioning difficulties for primary school-aged children with ASD and ADHD were found in this study. This provided significant information and direction for further enhancement of our rehabilitation services to cater the major social skill training needs of our clients and to further support the social concerns of their caregivers.
Co-location with:
