[Social interaction with autistic children: an approach to disorder-specific, therapy-oriented diagnosis]

Abstract

Assessment and intervention is a great challenge in working with autistic children. The problems of assessment can be described as a function of the autism-specific developmental problem of decontextualization. The problems of psychological intervention as a related problem of generalization. To control both problems in the social interaction with autistic children one is called to create and videotape situations of social interaction. One can create units of observation on the basis of development psychology studies. Those units are derived from the three main aspects of social interaction, the interactional situation, the interactional style and the interaction behavior. The audio-visuell taping and videoanalysis of many such interactions-sequences at the beginning, in the course and at the end of the intervention process make it possible to control the problems of intervention planning, finetuning and effectiveness.