Impact on Social Skills and BehaviouR

Restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests, or activities can have numerous impacts on social skills and behaviour, but the extent to which each individual student is impacted will vary.

The social world is not predictable. For a person with ASD, who seeks structure, routine and predictability, social interactions may be difficult and confusing.

Students with ASD may:

• prefer to interact with the same people every day,
• want to do same activities every day,
• prefer to discuss only certain topics which fascinate them.

Other students may not relate to these preferences and may find repetitive interactions unappealing. Students with ASD may have difficulty keeping up with changes in the social grouping of their peers, changes to their friend’s interests and activities.

Most students with ASD will have routines and rituals which help them to navigate their daily lives. Students may react strongly when these routines are interrupted by others, which can lead to unhelpful behaviour.