Social skills and problem behaviours in school aged children with high-functioning autism and Asperger's Disorder.

Dyer et al. (2006) compared kids with high-functioning autism and Asperger's to typical peers. They looked at social skills and problem behaviors in school-age children. The study used a quasi-experimental design to measure these differences.

Both groups - high-functioning autism and Asperger's - showed big social skill deficits. They also had more problem behaviors than typical kids. The deficits were equally large for both diagnostic groups.

This finding seems to contradict Lemons et al. (2015), who found that kids who lost their ASD diagnosis had normal social skills. But the difference is in the samples - Kathleen's study looked at kids who kept their diagnosis, while J et al. studied 'optimal outcome' kids who no longer qualified for ASD.

The results build on earlier work by Symons et al. (2005) and Anderson et al. (2004), who also found social deficits in autism. Kathleen's study extends this by showing the deficits are equally severe across high-functioning autism and Asperger's labels.

Allik et al. (2008) used the same quasi-experimental approach with the same population, but studied sleep instead of social skills. This shows the research method works well for comparing these diagnostic groups.

Stop treating Asperger's and high-functioning autism as different when planning social skills interventions. The social deficits are equally severe in both groups, so use the same evidence-based strategies regardless of which label is in the chart. Focus on teaching specific social skills rather than worrying about diagnostic distinctions that don't predict skill level.