The Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) gives impetus to educational reform. Education experts have recently recognised the benefits of using technology in learning and teaching. They believe that innovations will shape Education 4.0 and that teachers will need to be prepared to build creative learning environments that support student creativity. Thus, the main purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between teamwork, principal support, humor, and innovative work behaviour (IWB) among teachers. This study was conducted using a questionnaire, with a sample size of 354 school teachers in Malaysia. Multiple linear regression analysis has shown that teachers with high quality of teamwork and principal support were more likely to report innovative work behaviour. The findings indicated that teachers who frequently use humour can create more innovative behaviour. This paper can help managers and policymakers in the education sector, to develop a better understanding of these aspects, and their influence on teachers' innovative behaviour at work. In doing so, it would be helpful if teachers learnt effective procedures for innovative behaviour in class, via means of teamwork, humor, and principal support, to enhance their educational efforts. It is, therefore useful to establish university courses for pre-service teachers, focusing on new collaborative innovation strategies to encourage creativity and innovation in educational settings, and to apply collaborative creativity exercises in the classroom.

Innovative Work Behavior among Teachers in Malaysia: The Effects of Teamwork, Principal Support, and Humor.

Background: This study evaluates the effectiveness of parent-assisted children’s friendship training intervention for enhancing friendship quality and social skills among children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). We conducted a quasi-experimental study to investigate the effective outcomes of social skills and friendship quality in the pre-and post-parent-assisted CFT intervention phases; Methods: to conduct a 12-week field session, 30 children with their parents were selected. The Social Skills Improvement System Rating Scales and the Quality of Play Questionnaire-Parent were used to assess the effectiveness of the parent-assisted children’s friendship training during pre-and post-intervention. A semi-structured interview with parents was conducted at the end of the session; Results: findings revealed that intervention improved the social skills of these children. Additionally, the friendship quality of children with ASD improved before and after the intervention, however, engagement remained unchanged. Parents also showed some sort of improvement after the session as they reported a heightened sense of fear and resistance, awareness, learning and adjustment, change is not easy, and identifying support; Conclusions: there was clear evidence that children with ASD benefitted from parent-assisted CFTs in terms of social skills and friendship quality. However, larger and controlled studies are required to draw firm conclusions about this kind of intervention.

https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/5/2566/pdf

A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of Parent-Assisted Children's Friendship Training to Improve Social Skills and Friendship Quality in Children with Autism in Malaysia.

/pdf/examining-the-treatment-efficacy-of-peers-in-japan-improving-2ra21w69ct.pdf

Examining the Treatment efficacy of PEERS in Japan:Improving Social Skills among Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Optimizing social skills development is an important goal for families of children with autism spectrum disorders. This is a compact book edited by Andy Bondy (codeveloper of PECS) and Mary Weiss (a Board Certified Behavior Analyst) written to assist families and clinicians toward that goal. It consists of chapters written by experts in the field and is a valuable resource on available evidence-based practices for social skills development. The first chapter opens discussion of teaching social skills, the elusiveness of the term “social skills,” the need for an assessment of a child’s social behavior, and identification of potential target goals. It highlights the importance of prioritizing the child’s treatment plan with consideration for age, general skills, environment-appropriate goals, family priorities, ease of acquisition, individual interests, and flexibility in sequencing. Specific interventions used in teaching social skills development are then discussed, including strategies such as time delay, most to least prompting procedures, script fading procedures, audio taped scripts, incidental teaching, video modeling procedures, and pager prompts. One intriguing parenting program discussed in the book is the Sunny Starts program. It focuses on improving parentchild interactions through play and is targeted toward toddlers and their parents. It encourages parents to look for opportunities for social attending, such as the toddler’s eye gaze and body movements and to identify their child’s preferences and interests to help sustain their interaction. The program teaches parents to work through the acronym “DANCE”: Decide, Arrange, Now!, Count, and Enjoy. Parents first “Decide” if this is the right time to engage in play. Then, they “Arrange” their environment for the play. “Now!” refers to reminding parents to respond immediately with an enthusiastic affect when their child displays approximations. “Count” refers to parents monitoring goal responses, and finally “Enjoy” reminds parents to consider adjusting their teaching moment to ensure that both the child and they are happy. Another teaching modality described is the Claremont Autism Center’s Social Skills group program, which targets higher functioning children with autism. This includes Naturalistic teaching strategies, peer mediated strategies, video modeling, scripts, self-management, and parent training. It focuses on the benefits of teaching social skills in small group settings, simulating learning among same-aged children, and providing an opportunity to practice skills with peers. Strengths of this book include that it illustrates the various strategies available in teaching social skills and highlighting the evidence behind these strategies. Many teaching strategies work within the framework of applied behavior analysis, moving toward teaching in a more natural setting, and identifying the child’s intrinsic motivation to increase social behaviors. Most of the strategies discussed target children with autism, and not adults, although they may be adapted to the needs of adults with autism. Strategies may not be applicable to all children with autism. For example, when using video modeling to teach social skills, the prerequisite skills of generalized motor imitation, attending to a video, and delayed imitations of actions must be met. Ultimately, there is no single teaching modality that can address all the needs of a child’s social skill development at once. This book helps to emphasize the importance of choosing social skills that are meaningful to the child and family, having a strong understanding of the goals set, developing a strategy to monitor progress, and finding ways to generalize learned social skills to broader settings. It also discusses the role of support in the home, the community, and in school with a life course perspective. Although many clinicians acknowledge the importance of social skills programs for individuals with autism, they can also benefit from a deeper understanding of the available evidencebased practices and how to maximize utility of such programs across settings. Although this book may be too advanced for parents without formal training in behavioral interventions, clinicians treating children with autism can guide families through the principles described in the book. They can ask more insightful questions about the nature of their child’s social skills program and how social skills are reinforced in different settings. They can offer direction on other ways to teach children social skills and ultimately help improve outcomes. Disclosure: The author declares no conflict of interest.

Teaching Social Skills to People with Autism: Best Practices in Individualizing Interventions

Background: Children’s Friendship Training (CFT) is a parent-assisted intervention programme that introduces children to basic sets of social rules to help them understand social contexts with specific guidance from their parents. It has been reported in several empirical studies that the friendship skills of children with autism spectrum disorder were enhanced after participating in CFT. However, previous studies only focused on the effectiveness of the training without exploring it from the parent’s perspective. As such, the objective of this study is to highlight the parents’ experience in assisting in the implementation of CFT. Purpose: To explore the parents’ experiences with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in CFT and examine the experiences using the CFT as a theoretical framework. Methodology: In this study, eight parents and their school-aged children with ASD participated in 12 CFT sessions. Upon completing the CFT, the parents participated in a focus group interview. The interview session was video recorded and transcribed with the parents’ consent. Thematic analysis was employed in analysing the collected data as outlined in six different phases. Results: The generated data revealed the similarities and differences in parents’ experiences in the CFT. The current study has identified four main themes: (1) fear and resistance; (2) awareness, learning, and adjustment; (3) change is hard; and (4) identifying support. Conclusions: The findings highlighted the processes that these parents experienced and encountered while attending the CFT programme, it is important to consider these processes based on how they might impact the effectiveness of the programme. The programme’s effectiveness is reliant on the ability to work closely with parents to understand their challenges and explore the type of support they need. This study has analysed the crucial factors that provide an overview of parents’ encounters in their participation in CFT.

Parents' Experience in Children's Friendship Training Programme for Their Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Qualitative Inquiry.

Among the challenges faced by children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) involves developing social skills and building quality friendship through social activities, interactions and playing games. The purpose of this study was to find out the effect of Childrenâ€™s Friendship Training (CFT) on social skills among children with ASD. Utilising the quasi-experimental design of one-group-pretest-posttest study, this research was conducted on 40 children aged 7 to 12 years in the Klang Valley, Malaysia. The intervention lasted for 12 weeks and involved both the children with ASD and their parents. Data was collected twice for pre-test and post-test scores using two sets of questionnaires, Social Skills Rating Scale (SSRS) and Quality of Play Questionnaire (QPQ). Descriptive and inferential statistical tools were used to analyse the data. The findings indicated that there were significant increase in the social skills of children with ASD after the intervention, based on both the teachersâ€™ ( t (30) = -6.298, p = .000) and parentsâ€™, ( t (30) = -8.266, p = .000) evaluations. All the three subscales of Quality of Play also showed significant differences after the intervention, with significant decrease in conflict, ( t (30) = 3.949, p = .000) and disengagement ( M = 5.52, SD = 1.93), ( t (30) = 3.474, p = .002),Â  and significant increase in engagement, ( t (30) = -4.892, p = .000). In conclusion, CFT effects were significant in enhancing social skills and quality of play among children with ASD.Â  As social skills are very much related to social acceptance and ultimately self-concept and self-esteem, the potentials of CFT in overcoming social skill issues among children with or without learning disabilities should be explored further. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.19.7.13

http://ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter/article/download/2328/pdf

Sing Yee Ong

Papers

The Effects of Childrenâ€™s Friendship Training on Social Skills and Quality of Play among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of Parent-Assisted Children's Friendship Training to Improve Social Skills and Friendship Quality in Children with Autism in Malaysia.

Parents' Experience in Children's Friendship Training Programme for Their Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Qualitative Inquiry.