Living with ASD: how do children and their parents assess their difficulties with social interaction and understanding?
Parents see bigger social problems than their kids with autism do—use both views to pick true targets.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Knott et al. (2006) gave two short surveys to families. One went to children with autism. The other went to their parents.
Both forms asked about the same social trouble spots: starting talks, keeping them going, and fitting in with peers.
What they found
Parents rated their kids' social skills much lower than the kids rated themselves. Yet both groups picked the same three weak spots.
In plain words, parents saw bigger problems, but everyone agreed on where to look.
How this fits with other research
Gómez-Pérez et al. (2019) later saw the same split in older youth. Parents again scored social problem-solving lower than their kids did. They showed this gap can even help flag autism during assessment.
Cederlund et al. (2010) found the pattern holds for teens and young adults with Asperger syndrome. Self-ratings stayed rosier than parent ratings.
Lemons et al. (2015) moved the lens to anxiety and still saw poor parent-child agreement. The rater gap isn't about social skills alone—it pops up across domains.
Why it matters
If you only ask the parent, you may set goals the child doesn't buy into. If you only ask the child, you may miss trouble the parent sees. Collect both forms, circle the items both sides rate low, and start your intervention there. This quick step boosts engagement and keeps treatment targets real.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Social interaction and understanding in autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) are key areas of concern to practitioners and researchers alike. However, there is a relative lack of information about the skills and competencies of children and young people with ASD who access ordinary community facilities including mainstream education. In particular, contributions by parents and their children have been under-utilized. Using two structured questionnaires, 19 children with ASD reported difficulties with social skills including social engagement and temper management and also reported difficulties with social competence, affecting both friendships and peer relationships. Parents rated the children's social skill and competence as significantly worse than did the children themselves, but there was considerable agreement about the areas that were problematic. Using an informal measure to highlight their children's difficulties, parents raised issues relating to conversation skills, social emotional reciprocity and peer relationships. The implications for assessment and intervention are discussed.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2006 · doi:10.1177/1362361306068510