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Social Difficulties in Children with Autism

 

Based in Parkland, Florida, the Friendship Circle is an organization focused on helping families who have children with autism and other special needs. The organization’s activities include exposing the children to a wide range of social experiences.

These experiences are especially important for children on the autism spectrum because they often have difficulty socializing. According to developmental experts, autism is characterized by impairments in three areas of social functioning.

First is social interaction, as children with autism often demonstrate difficulty in establishing and managing social relationships, as manifested by indifference to the presence of other people. Children with autism can also have problems with social communication, especially as it relates to expressing themselves through either verbal or nonverbal means. Lastly, children with autism may manifest impairments in social imagination, which means that they find it difficult to develop interpersonal play and imagination.