Teaching Students How to Behave: Social Skills
The following module is designed to assist educators in teaching critical social skills. Social
skills are important to address in our schools, not only to help make school a more positive
place in which to learn, but to help promote optimal student learning. By assuring that
youngsters have critical social skills, the occurrence of many behavior problems can be
prevented. In addition, interpersonal relationships and academic achievement are likely to
improve.
Pre Assessment
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Social skills training can prevent behavior problems.
Social skills training is vital to a student’s success in school.
If a student misbehaves, the best approach is to punish the infraction.
Social skill deficits can be identified by direct observation or rating scales.
When selecting a replacement skill it is not important to make sure that it will be
supported by the natural environment.
6. Some social skills can be taught simply by requesting them and reinforcing their
occurrence.
7. Skill cards incorporate task analyses and prompting to help teach students more
complex social skills.
8. It is important to not incorporate response fluency in a social skills training program.
9. Social skills training incorporate modeling and DRD.
10. Social skills training needs to be recognized as an integral part of the curriculum.
Goals
After completing this module, you should be able to:
1. Discuss how social skills training differs from approaches that focus on pinpointing
and eradicating problem behaviors.
2. Identify the two major areas of social skills training, provide several examples of
behaviors contained in each, and discuss the importance of each area.
3. Specify and discuss two major ways of identifying specific social skills that are
missing.
4. List the four guidelines for selecting the replacement social skills to be taught.
5. Identify and discuss the two basic systems for measuring the effectiveness of the
social skills training program.
6. Present how a social skills program can be set up in a classroom (design the
program), and describe what must occur in the classroom if the social skills training is
conducted by someone outside the classroom.
7. Discuss the importance of skill cards and how they might be used in the classroom.
8. Identify the two behavioral procedures that social skills training are based upon.
9. Conduct a social skills training for a student or class.
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Social skills are vital to a student’s success in school and getting along with others. These
skills allow the student to interact positively with the teacher and peers, and to do well
academically. A student without appropriate social skills will not do well in school. In
addition, social skill deficits are a root cause of adjustment problems.
All too often when a student does not demonstrate appropriate social skills (e.g., the student
does not pay attention, persist on task, invite others to participate, assist a peer who requests
help) the response of the teacher is to deliver punishment rather than to teach the deficit
social skill. Punishment does not teach the student how to behave, and when social skill
deficits are not addressed by teaching replacement behaviors, the student continues to have
problems into adolescents and adulthood. In other words, the problem behaviors persist
unless appropriate social skills are taught to the child, adolescent, or adult.
One might ask, then, “Why is it that many students demonstrate appropriate social skills
while others do not?” In some home environments children are not given puzzles or
encouraged to engage in activities that help them learn persistence on task. Similarly,
children who are not read to or encouraged to participate in family discussions or other
activities often do not learn to pay attention. Or, to further illustrate, one non-compliant
youngster, who came from a home environment featuring many threats that were seldom
followed through on, was told by a school principal that he had to leave the lunch area
because it was time for the staff to clean it. He refused because he was not done with his
lunch. The principal told him that if he continued to refuse, she would have to suspend him
for the rest of the day. He refused and was suspended. When asked for an explanation, his
honest response was, “I didn’t believe her.” Accustomed to receiving threats that were not
“backed up,” he had learned that they had little meaning and ignored them. Thus, some
children have not experienced an environment that has taught them critical social skills.
Instead, their environment may have taught them inappropriate behavior.
The goal of social skills training is to teach students socially acceptable behaviors that will
result in natural recognition and acceptance (reinforcement) from their teachers, classmates,
and others, rather than rejection and punishment. Remember, the problematic behavior that a
student engages in is meeting a need or serving a purpose for that student. The task is to
discover the purpose and teach positive alternative behaviors that will satisfy that purpose
more effectively. How, then, might social skills training be approached?
Two Major Social Skill Areas
The two major areas of social skills that influence academic performance are: academic
survival skills and peer relationship skills. They are illustrated below:
Academic Survival Skills
Academic survival skills include the following social skills:
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Persistence on task
Eyes directed toward teacher when teacher is talking or demonstrating
Compliance with teacher requests and directions
Requests help when needed
Raises hand and waits for permission before asking questions
Requests feedback over appropriately spaced intervals
Nods to communicate understanding
Provides appreciative feedback or approval (“Thank-you” “Oh, now I understand,”
smiles)
Greets the teacher
Many of these skills serve as building blocks upon which classroom learning occurs.
Students cannot survive academically or obtain good grades if they have deficits in these
skills.
Peer Relationship Skills
Critical peer relationship skills include the following:
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Says “Hi” or “Hello”
Introduces self by name
Asks questions about other student (name, likes, etc.)
Identifies common interests and discusses them
Shares something about self
Provides compliments and specifies what is being complimented
Asks for permission
Shares objects with others
Assists others who desire assistance
Introduces others
Invites others to participate
Smiles
Cares for physical appearance or grooming
Students who are popular usually have most of these skills, while students who tend to be
rejected by their peers do not. Students who feel rejected by their peers usually do not find
school a pleasant, reinforcing place to be. These youngsters are often rejected and/or bullied
by others, making the school a very punitive place for them. The punitive classroom
environment created by peer rejection certainly is not conducive to learning. Social skills
that popular youngsters have can be taught to these youngsters.
Case – Question/Answers
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Josh often “goofs off” in class when the teacher assigns independent work. Instead of
completing his assignments, he throws pencils and wads of paper at peers, makes disruptive
noises, and frequently falls off of his chair. Mr. Gonzales, Josh’s teacher, typically reacts to
Josh’s behavior by verbal redirection, telling him, “Josh, get back to work!” He also sits with
Josh and helps him complete the unfinished assignment. When he speaks with Josh, he
notices that Josh usually is unclear about a certain step in the math problem or is confused
about what he is supposed to do. Once the teacher shows him how to do it, Josh is able to
complete the rest of the worksheet without disrupting other students. If be becomes bored or
frustrated, however, he will often begin wandering around the room or engaging in the
behaviors previously mentioned. Overall, Josh performs at grade level, but his behaviors
during independent seat-work are frustrating both the teacher and the rest of the class.
1) What might be a root cause of Josh’s behavior problems?
--Social Skills Deficit
2) What academic survival skills is Josh lacking?
--Requesting help when needed
--Persistence on Task
3) Why might Josh not already have developed these social skills?
--He may have grown up in a home environment that did not encourage him to engage in
activities or ask for help.
4) What might Mr. Gonzalez do to improve Josh’s behavior?
--Teach him the identified social skills
Steps in Teaching Social Skills
Identify Missing Skills (Deficits)
There are two major ways of identifying deficits: observation and rating scales.
Observation. A teacher can often determine social skill deficits through classroom
observations. Sometimes the social skills that need to be trained are very obvious, as when
certain students consistently fail to pay attention: The students may fail to look at you during
instruction and their questions or answers are irrelevant to the lesson. A teacher also can
observe the behavior of students who appear to have good social skills to obtain an idea of
what behaviors are desirable in the classroom and with peers. However, there will probably
be times when the deficit will not be determined through observation alone. In those cases
consider using a social skills rating scale.
Rating scales. There are many inventories available (see illustrations and resources
provided in Classroom Management: A California Resource Guide). Another option is to
prepare your own rating scale in order to target a specific social skill area. For example, you
might want to focus on the peer relationship or academic survival skills listed above.
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Once the inventory is selected, anyone who knows the students well can fill out the rating
scale. In addition, it is best to have the students fill out the inventory themselves (if they are
old enough or functionally able), for if they perceive a need to learn a new behavior, they
will be more motivated to learn it and use it in new situations.
Select the Skill to be Taught (Replacement Social Skill)
The replacement skills are the appropriate alternatives that will replace the problem behavior.
For example, in place of punishing a student for his inattentive behavior, the student can be
taught to pay attention, or to look at the teacher during instruction, and to provide relevant
questions and answers. When selecting the replacement skill it should meet the following
guidelines:
 Works as well or better than the problem behavior in communicating or meeting the
student’s needs
 Serves as an acceptable alternative to the problem behavior
 Supported by the student’s teachers, friends and family
 Builds a positive reputation for the student
Measure and Evaluate the Behavior
Measuring the behavior is helpful if you want evidence of the effectiveness of your social
skills program. A simple means of measuring the social skill is to tabulate daily how often
the replacement and problem behaviors occur during three to ten days before training is
impolemented. If the problem behavior occurs frequently, rather than counting throughout
the day, the behavior’s occurrences can be tabulated during a 20-30 minute segment of the
day in which the behavior is typically at its worse. Then during the instructional
intervention, continue to tabulate the occurrence of the problem and replacement behaviors in
the same manner and time segment you recorded them prior to treatment. Next, compare the
rate of occurrence prior to intervention to that during intervention to see what effect the
intervention program has possibly had on the instructed and problem social behaviors.
Another means of measuring the behavior, if a rating scale is used, is to administer the rating
scale again after the social skills training program to possibly the student, parents and
teacher, and compare the pre-treatment rating to the post-treatment rating of the skills taught.
This method is certainly a more subjective method than directly observing the effects of the
program, but it can tap consumer satisfaction: an important element in judging the success of
any educational program.
Case – Questions/Answers
Carlos gets into fights every day during recess and lunch. When Mrs. Kim walks onto the
yard to pick up her class, she routinely is overwhelmed by student complaints about Carlos’
behavior. According to students, Carlos pushes, kicks, and hits his peers to get access to the
class ball. Once he has “stolen” the ball, he enjoys running around the yard with it while the
students chase him, trying to get it back. When the students arrive back at the classroom,
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they typically are so upset about what happened on the yard that Mrs. Kim has to spend about
5 to ten minutes discussing the school rules.
1) What are two ways to identify Carlos’ skill deficit?
--Observation and rating scales
2) What might be an advantage of asking Carlos to fill out a rating scale on his own behaviors?
--He might become more motivated to learn the new skill.
3) What could be some appropriate replacement peer relationship skills?
--Sharing objects with others, asking for permission, and inviting others to participate
4) What are two ways to measure Carlos’ behavior change?
--Tabulate the frequency of his behaviors or use rating scales before and after the social skills
are taught.
Design and Conduct the Program
Informal methods. There are several informal methods that can be used to teach social
skills during regular classroom activities. These include:
 Involve the student in selecting the skill.
 Assure that the selected skill will be supported in a variety of settings.
 Request specific skills: “Look at me while I’m talking, so I’ll know that you are paying
attention.” And, then of course, praise the student for looking at you. (When there are
cultural issues with the behavior, be sure not to negate the behavior the student has, just
help the student to discriminate when and when not to use the new and old skills. This
way the student will be able to function well in a variety of environments.)
 Catch and reinforce students for engaging in the desired social skill. This incorporates
modeling, in that others see their classmates being reinforced for the desired social skill,
and it strengthens students desired social behaviors (see the module on Positive Behavior
Interventions).
 Teach the skill in a variety of settings.
 Incorporate classroom motivational programs, described in the Module on Reinforcement
and Chapters 3 and 4 of Classroom Management: A California Resource Guide, to help
motivate students to begin practicing the desired social skills.
 Gradually thin out and eliminate special consequences.
If there is someone on your staff who does social skills training (e.g., a counselor or school
psychologist), consider referring students for that service. This has the advantage of
providing students with more intensive training in the selected social skills. However, such
training outside of the classroom can only be successful if the classroom teacher also
implements the above informal methods. Social skills learned in the counselor’s or
psychologist’s office must be supported (reinforced) in the classroom if they are to continue
to occur. It is important for the teacher to keep abreast of what skills are being taught in the
social skills training group in order to reinforce the use of these skills in the classroom.
Case – Questions/Answers
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Mrs. Kim decided that she wanted to teach Carlos some peer relationship social skills to help
him play more appropriately and make friends with other students. She fist helped Carlos fill
out a rating scale on his own behaviors. He identified that he had difficulty asking others to
participate, difficulty sharing objects with others, and difficulty asking for permission. Mrs.
Kim explained to Carlos that learning those skills could help him make more friends and
have more fun on the playground. Carlos selected “asking others to participate” as the first
skill he wanted to learn. Later that day, Mrs. Kim told the class that Carlos was going to be
working on asking others to play with him. To help Carlos, she asked that students allow
Carlos to play with them whenever he asks appropriately. Mrs. Kim had several well-liked
students model how to appropriately ask if you can play with others. Carlos then role-played
the skill with several students acting out different situations on the yard. The next day before
recess, Mrs. Kim reminded Carlos to ask students if he could join in on their game. After
recess, Mrs. Kim praised Carlos for his improvement and gave good behavior tickets both to
Carlos and to the students who had let him join in on their game. After a few weeks, Mrs.
Kim had taught Carlos all three social skills. She also had slowly reduced the number of
good behavior tickets she was giving out, and Carlos seemed to be able to play with other
students without engaging in aggressive behaviors.
1) How did Mrs. Kim involve Carlos in selecting the skill?
--She asked Carlos to fill out his own rating scale, identify his own skill deficits, and
select the skill he wanted to work on first.
2) How did Mrs. Kim assure that Carlos’ new skill would be supported on the
playground?
--She explained to the class that Carlos was working on a new skill and that his
classmates could support him by letting him play with them when he asked appropriately.
3) What did Mrs. Kim do to request specific skills?
--She reminded Carlos to ask students to join in on their game.
4) How did Mrs. Kim reinforce Carlos and other class members?
-- Verbal praise and good behavior tickets.
Systematic methods. Some teachers like to teach social skills more systematically, and
make the training part of their classroom activity. There are many variations to teaching
social skills. No one method appears to be considerably better than another. For those of you
who would prefer to use commercially prepared social skills training programs, several
sources have been provided at the end of this module. For those who prefer greater flexibility
and like to create their own programs, we have provided you with the basic steps to
systematically teaching social skills:
 Schedule time for social skills training
 Describe the purpose and benefits of the training to your students (e.g.,
overcoming deficiencies, learning to relate to others better, making friends more easily,
changing how your teachers, parents, or peers treat you)
 Involve your students in the selection of the incentives or reinforcers (if you
are using any)
 Involve your students in the selection of the skills and scenarios to be
discussed
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Put on the board or poster the social skill the class is to work on
Discuss the behavior with the class (What does it consist of, or how do you do it?)
Develop with the class the social skill’s components and list them on the
board or on a poster (e.g., the components for following the teacher’s instructions
might include: listen carefully, ask questions if there is anything you do not understand,
repeat the instructions to yourself, do what you have been asked to do; for rewarding
yourself -- determine if you have done something that deserves a reward, decide what you
can say and do to reward yourself, say it and do it). These skill components can also be
placed on an index card, called a skill card, which students can carry to remind them
how to engage in the behavior. The advantages of using skill cards is that they break the
social skill into its components, or sub-tasks, and serve as a prompt to remind the student
what to do.
Discuss with the class when to use the skill and when not to use it (e.g., handraising can be used in the classroom during discussions or when you have a question, but
not on the playing field). This discrimination becomes particularly relevant when
teaching students an academic survival skill, such as prompting their teacher for
reinforcement. The students must be taught to spread their cueing across the work period
rather than bunching it up at the beginning or at the end. It is helpful to give them some
idea as to when to cue: after about a page is completed without many mistakes, or after
working carefully for a period of time. For example, after they finish a page of work, or
work for a period of 20 minutes, they then might cue the teacher with such comments as
“How’s this?” or “Look at how much I’ve done.” Or, “Am I doing this correctly?”
Select two to three classmates as models to demonstrate the social skill with
other students in the class (the models must be competent in the social skill and be
well liked--friendly and cooperative with their classmates)
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Select real life situations with the models for their role playing
demonstrations (e.g., model complies with typical instruction given by teacher; model
rewards self after doing well on an exam by complimenting self and renting some videos)
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Use techniques for enhancing the likelihood that classmates will imitate the
models’ behavior: Praise each model’s behavior, provide incentives (if using them),
and prompt other group members to positively recognize the behavior; Re-emphasize the
purpose and benefit of the specific skill, and discuss how it relates to the students lives;
Keep the modeled performance simple or easy to imitate; Point our similarities among
models and classmates
Request each student to role play the modeled social skill (Place students in
groups of about 3 each. Do not place students together who have a history of fighting or
who are silly and goof off when they are together. Praise good role playing, provide
incentives, if you are using them, and prompt others to positively comment on each
episode)
Watch carefully for mistakes (models may help in this activity). Demonstrate and
have the student practice one sub-skill, or component, at a time before again attempting
the more complex skill. Be sure to positively acknowledge each sub-skill attainment and
any improvements made
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Continue to role-play until response fluency is achieved (response fluency has
been achieved when the social skill occurs easily without thought or effort)
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Assign practice, after response fluency is achieved, in a variety of settings or
situations (Have students determine--write down if able--where, when, and with whom
they will try the skill, and how they will reward themselves after performing the skill.
Also, after the students have completed the assignment, have them write down what they
did, what reactions they observed, and how they rewarded themselves)
Reinforce students for completing practice assignment (reinforcers and
programs from the module on reinforcement, and from chapters 3 and 4 form Classroom
Management: A California Resource Guide, can be used to help motivate students for
practicing their social skills)
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Prompt students to use the social skill in situations in which they should be
using it but are not
 Incorporate discussion of skills into the curriculum through films and books
 Encourage parents, peers and other teachers to look for and reinforce the
newly learned social skills
Case-Questions/Answers
This year, Ms. Holland decided that she wanted to create a social skills program because she
had a lot of behavior problems in her class. She waited until the third month of school to
begin teaching it because she always seemed to run out of time in her daily schedule. When
she finally did find time to introduce the program, she explained to the class that the skills
that they would learn could help them behave better in school. One student yelled out that he
did not want to behave better and several others in the class joined in. Ms. Holland recently
came to you asking advice about how to better implement her program. She was worried that
her students would think it was “stupid” and that it wouldn’t “work.”
1) What can Mrs. Holland do to ensure that she has time to teach her social skills
program?
-- Schedule a set time for social skill lessons and adhere to the schedule.
2) What are some other purposes and benefits of social skills training that Mrs. Holland
could have expressed to her students?
--Social skills training can help students overcome deficiencies, learn to relate to
others better, make friends more easily, and change how teachers, parents and peers
treat you.
3) What are two advantages of using a skill card when teaching complex skills?
--The skill card breaks the social skill into its components and serves as a prompt to
remind the student what to do.
4) Should Mrs. Holland demonstrate all of the skills by herself or should she select
student models to demonstrate the skills?
--She should select student models, and then let the students practice in groups of
three until response fluency is achieved.
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Concluding Comments
Social skills training is based on two positive behavioral interventions that were described
previously in the module on Positive Behavior Interventions: modeling and reinforcing
desirable behavior alternatives (DRA). Social skills are important to address in our schools,
not only to help make school a more positive place in which to learn, but to help promote
optimal student learning. By assuring that youngsters have critical social skills, behavior
problems can be reduced, and interpersonal relationships and achievement are likely to
improve.
School psychologists, counselors, and interested teachers who have the appropriate skills and
knowledge can provide needed training in social skills for the students. Often they can help
students learn many of these skills from one another. Numerous training strategies and
programs are available for use. (See the state publication, Classroom Management: A
California Resource Guide, 2000, for a variety of practical suggestions and resources.)
Because of the critical nature of many social skills, we no longer can ignore them or assume
that our students have learned them. Social skills need to be recognized as an integral part of
the curriculum, and their acquisition no longer should be left to chance. You now have the
knowledge to teach a variety of social skills.
Post Assessment
1. Social skills training can prevent behavior problems. (T It does so by teaching
appropriate social behaviors that will better meet the students needs)
2. Social skills training is vital to a student’s success in school. (T Students who have
not learned to pay attention, persist on task, comply with requests, ask for help, etc.
are not likely to do well academically)
3. If a student misbehaves, the best approach is to punish the infraction. (F Punishment
does not teach the student how to behave.)
4. Social skills deficits can be identified by direct observation or rating scales. (T)
5. When selecting a replacement skill it is not important to make sure that it will be
supported by the natural environment. (F Replacement skills will not maintain unless
they are supported by the natural environment, or by the teachers, peers, etc.)
6. Some social skills can be taught simply by requesting them and reinforcing their
occurrence. (T)
7. Skill cards incorporate task analyses and prompting to help teach students more
complex social skills. (T)
8. It is important to not incorporate response fluency in a social skills training program.
(F Fluency must be incorporated into social skills trainings if the behavior is to
generalize to other settings and persist.)
9. Social skills training incorporate modeling and DRD. (F Social skills training
incorporates modeling and DRA.)
10. Social skills training needs to be recognized as an integral part of the curriculum. (T)
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