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This study investigated perceptions of teachers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) on the importance of friendship development in comparison to other outcome priorities. Perceptions of teachers working in special classes were compared to those of teachers of mainstream classes. Friendship was rated of similar importance to social skills and emotional development, whereas intellectual and academic skills, physical skill and motor development, and creativity were rated of lower importance than friendship. When teachers were asked to force-rank priorities, friendship was third, preceded by emotional development and social skills. Special class teachers assigned higher ranks to learning outcomes that relate to the core deficits of ASD, namely social skills, friendship, and emotional development, as compared to mainstream class teachers. Furthermore, teachers prioritized friendship differently according to student levels of autistic symptomatology. When perceptions of teachers and parents were compared, both perceived social skills, emotional development, and friendship as the three most important outcomes. The implications of these findings for future educational service delivery are discussed.

The current study examined the level of friendship satisfaction of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their nominated friends (with and without diagnosis of ASD). A total of 77 target children with ASD and friends from 49 nominated friendships participated in the study. Relatively high levels of friendship satisfaction were reported by both target children and their nominated friends with no overall difference between dyads involving typically developing friends and friends with ASD. Analysis at the individual dyad level showed a high level of agreement on the reported level of satisfaction across the target participants and their friends. Limitations and directions for future research are presented.

There has been limited research exploring the similarity of perception of friendship quality between children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and their friends. In this study, 45 children with ASD participated together with their friends. Two levels of friendship quality congruency were investigated: reciprocity and mutuality. A high proportion of the friendships were reciprocated for both the mixed and non-mixed friendship groups. Nevertheless, students with ASD reported substantial differences in perceptions of their friendship quality as compared to their nominated friends. The findings of the present study mirrored those of previous research with typically developing children. Further study is required to systematically investigate the differences in friendship quality perceptions within friendship dyads for both typically developing children and those with ASD diagnosis.

Parental perceptions of the importance of friendship development in comparison to other outcome priorities are examined in this research. Parents of children with high functioning autism between the age of 5-10?years (N?=?74) were asked to rate and rank the importance of the following six outcome priorities: friendship, social skills, physical and motor development, intellectual and academic skills, creativity, and emotional capacity. It was predicted that friendship would be highly prioritised by parents, considering the friendship difficulties often experienced by children with autism. Parents reported friendship to be third most highly rated outcome following social skills and emotional skills, although all three were closely rated. When parents were asked to force-rank priorities, friendship was ranked considerably lower than social and emotional development. Level of autistic symptomatology of the child did not seem to influence parent rating or ranking of friendship importance to any great extent. The implications of these findings for future educational service delivery are discussed.

An experiment investigated the effects of different levels of task complexity in pre-training on over-selectivity in a subsequent match-to-sample (MTS) task. Twenty human participants were divided into two groups; exposed either to a 3-element, or a 9-element, compound stimulus as a sample during MTS training. After the completion of training, both groups were tested on an MTS task using a novel 6-element compound sample stimulus. The level of over-selectivity at test was influenced by the training. Specifically, the group exposed to a more complex (9-element) training task displayed higher levels of over-selectivity at test than the group with a less complex training task. The results suggest that over-selectivity may be a learned response to complex situations, and are discussed with respect to theories and treatments for over-selectivity. (Contains 2 figures.)