One of the core characteristics of autism is social impairment.
For a long time, researchers believed that these issues were related to insufficient social motivation.
Individuals with autism have difficulties in developing social skills, making it challenging for them to integrate into their peers’ social interactions.
However, new research has uncovered another key factor that hinders children’s socialization…
Emotional and behavioral dysregulation!
(Source of the research)
As autistic children grow older, the vast majority exhibit significant anxiety, depression, and other emotional problems clinically.
We can imagine a child who deeply desires to be close to others in the classroom or to play with peers on the playground, but whenever someone cuts in line, a toy is broken, or things do not go as planned, he loses his temper. As a result, typical children may no longer want to interact with our child or build friendships.
Over time, the negative feedback received from others diminishes the child’s social motivation, decreases their interest in social interaction, and naturally hampers the development of their social skills…
To understand the interaction between socialization and emotions, researchers studied the behavioral responses of over 2,000 autistic children aged 6 to 18, including anxiety, irritability, aggression, attention difficulties, and self-injurious behaviors.
The findings indicated that two-thirds of the autistic children had at least one of the aforementioned emotional problems, reaching a level sufficient for clinical diagnosis. Additionally, 10% showed various forms of emotional issues.
Then, by directly comparing the reports on the children’s social skills and motivations, it was discovered that emotional dysregulation and social motivation both directly impact the development of children’s social skills: children with high social motivation are generally more successful in social situations than those with lower motivation.
At the same time, children with emotional problems—whether due to lack of attention, anxiety, irritability, or aggression—often exhibit poorer social skills.
The results prove that there is an interactive relationship between social motivation and emotional dysregulation. Emotional dysregulation can also affect a child’s social motivation; even when children’s social motivation is relatively high, their social skills may still be lacking.
In other words, to facilitate a child’s social interactions, merely fostering their social motivation is far from enough; it is also essential to cultivate their emotional regulation abilities! Only with calm emotions and a friendly attitude can children better integrate into groups and successfully engage in social activities.
