Communication skills of primary school students diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder: the impact of socially oriented awareness training

Objectives This study aims to examine how participating in a social awareness course affects certain communication skills of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) within the context of inclusive education in Kazakhstan.Methods The study involved 120 children aged 7 to 9 years from two general education schools that offer inclusive education. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either the proposed social awareness course or traditional support strategies. The proposed program consists of two modules: one focuses on developing nonverbal communication skills, and the other seeks to develop social interaction skills. The training process involved the use of games, video analysis tasks, emotion cards, and tablet-based exercises.Results The results showed significant improvements across all communicative complexity scale (CCS) subscales in the intervention group: Social Initiative (M = +3.08), Responsive Interaction (M = +2.58), and Awareness of Nonverbal Cues (M = +2.40). No significant changes were found in the control group. Subsequent analyses revealed that female students experienced a more pronounced increase in the Awareness of Nonverbal Cues subscale, with the greatest improvement observed in children aged 7 to 8 years.Conclusions Teachers and parents reported observing increased social initiative, a broader social circle, and increased confidence in communication among children subjected to experimental training.