Examining the social participation of children and adolescents with Intellectual Disabilities and Autism Spectrum Disorder in relation to peers.
Big survey shows kids with ID and ASD join fewer activities and have weaker friendships—build these into intervention plans.
01Research in Context
What this study did
van Timmeren et al. (2016) mailed a big survey to parents, teachers, and kids across the country. They asked how often children with intellectual disability, autism, or both joined clubs, sports, and play dates, and how many real friends each child had.
The team compared answers for kids with ID only, ID plus ASD, and typical peers.
What they found
Children with ID only and those with ID plus ASD took part in far fewer after-school and weekend activities.
They also listed fewer friends and said the friendships felt weaker.
The kids who had both ID and ASD showed the biggest gaps of all.
How this fits with other research
Žic Ralić et al. (2025) later asked parents to rate social-emotional skills in the same groups. Parents gave the lowest scores to the ID plus ASD subgroup, matching the friendship gap seen here.
Menezes et al. (2021) looked at the same cohort and found these youth also have twice the unmet mental-health needs. Together the three papers paint one picture: less play, poorer social skills, and less help.
Golos et al. (2022) watched preschoolers with ASD and saw the same social-lag pattern, showing the problem starts early and sticks.
Why it matters
If you serve youth with ID or ASD, treat low social participation as a red flag. Add friendship goals to the IEP or treatment plan. Schedule peer outings, clubs, or lunch bunches, and track them like any other target behavior.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Participation in social and physical activities has a number of benefits for children with or without disabilities. However, individuals with disabilities are often excluded from taking part in social activities. Most of the research on activity participation has focused on adults or youth with milder disabilities. However, children and adolescents with severe and complex needs, including those with autism, are often excluded from this type of research because of their complexities and level of functioning. Thus, we examined the social participation and friendships of children and adolescents with severe developmental disabilities, with and without autism, compared with peers without developmental disabilities. METHODS: We compared the activity participation and friendships of typically developing children (n = 210), children with an intellectual disability (ID only; n = 186), and children with autism spectrum disorder plus intellectual disability (ID + ASD; n = 232) between the ages of 3 and 19 years. Parents of these children completed a survey, which included questions about their children's participation in six activities, and the number and quality of their children's friendships. RESULTS: Children and adolescents with ID only and ID + ASD were reported to participate in significantly fewer activities and to participate much less frequently than typically developing peers. Those with ID only and ID + ASD were reported to have fewer friends and poorer quality of friendships. In addition, those with ID + ASD participated even less frequently in some activities and had fewer friends relative to those with ID only. CONCLUSION: It is important to find ways to increase the social and activity participation of children and adolescents with ID only and ID + ASD. Future research should examine the barriers to such participation and factors that impact social participation in this population.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2016 · doi:10.1111/jir.12289