Predicting Language Effectiveness from Social Skills in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

The current study aimed to predict linguistic proficiency through the social skills of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) at the level of purposeful social interaction, avoiding or seeking social participation, and inappropriate social behaviors. The study sample consisted of 48 children classified within the mild autism spectrum, enrolled in special education classes, and selected randomly. To test the study hypothesis, the Social Skills Scale and the Linguistic Proficiency Scale were applied. The results indicated that purposeful social interaction contributes to predicting linguistic proficiency in the study sample.