Teaching Social Skills to Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: a guidebook on social skills for children with autism

Abstract

This product-based thesis was created in collaboration with the Deaconess Institute. The goal was to create a guidebook to assist part-time workers at one of the the units in Deaconess Institute to teach social skills to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by learning basic Finnish sign language (FinSL). The guidebook used ideas from my work-life partner, full-time workers, thesis participants, and me. The guidebook contained pictures of FinSL. My work-life partner organises sign language workshops for full-time workers. This thesis concentrates on how part-time workers can communicate effectively in FinSL to encourage service users to engage in activities. This thesis highlights how professionals and paraeducators can use augmentative and alternative communication to assist children diagnosed with ASD with challenging behaviours to express themselves better.