Entry Activity

Discuss your task analysis with a partner.

Ask what their plans are to develop an
instructional plan to teach that
skill/routine.
Updates

Task analysis on academics due Today!
 May 25th- Instructional Plan for Communication
Skills
 June 1st- Instructional Plan for Academic Skills

Ecological Assessment Report due June 6th
 June 8th- Implementation Plan

[to Bobby] “You don't
have what they call "the
social skills." That's why
you never have any
friends, 'cept fo' yo'
mama.”
 From Waterboy, 1998 starring
Adam Sandler
How is communication related
to the development of social
skills?
Besides communication skills, what other
factors affect a student’s development of
social skills?
 Based on what we have talked about in
this class thus far, how would you go
about assessing the social skills of a
student with significant disabilities?

Think about students in the
school you are working in…





What types of interactions do they engage
in? (e.g., academic, social)
How do they establish
relationships/friendships?
How do they gain membership &
belonging?
What about romantic relationships?
What about relationships with adults?
Break into groups and discuss
your articles

Group 1- Ready to present:






What are social skills vs social competence?
Traditional assessment of social skills
Contextual approach to social skills assessment
Brief results of the study
Groups 2 & 3- Ready to present:
 What were the questions in the study?
 Brief methods of the study.
 What were the results of the study?
Group 4- Ready to present:
 Literature review of paraprofessionals in the
classroom
 Paraprofessional’s role in social relationships.
 Promotion of student-to-student interaction
 How?
Esaul
7th grade at Chavez Middle School
Spanish is his first/home language
Can be quite shy when meeting someone
for the first time & it takes him a while to
feel comfortable around new people.
 Has autism & tends to repeat a few
favorite phrases, avoids making eye
contact, & holds fast to specific routines.
 When topics of video games, movies, or
comic books are brought up his entire
demeanor changes



Discuss with a partner

What are Esaul’s strengths?

What are (or can) be barriers to Esaul
developing positive social relationships?

What process would you use to assess
these barriers?

What are some ideas you have for
teaching/facilitating the development of
social relationships for Esaul?
Alexis
4th grader at North Elementary School.
Only knows a few of her classmates and
often feels alone at school.
 Has moderate intellectual disabilities, a
mild hearing impairment, and a severe
physical disability for which she uses an
electric wheelchair.
 Alexis discovered she has a knack for
abstract painting that features vibrant
colors and bold lines.


Discuss with a partner

What are Alexis’ strengths?

What are or can be barriers to Alexis
developing positive social relationships?

What are some ideas you have for
teaching/facilitating the development of
social relationships for Alexis?
How would you assess a
student’s social skills?


Rating scales- from those in environment
Teacher nomination & ranking List of students who demonstrate a specific
behavioral characteristic to the greatest or least
extent in comparison to classmates
Self-report- student’s subjective
perceptions about own social competence
 Direct behavioral observation
Contextually & Age-appropriate

Contextual approach-
 Assess the skills of students within the
environment.
 Identify skills that need to be taught
 Ensures meaningful social development
 Ensures the identification of skills that are relevant
to the student’s culture.
What are social relationships?
Easy answers:
It’s obvious….we all have them and know
what they are.
 Defining social relationships is like
defining the meaning of life…it’s not
possible.
 More useful understanding of social
relationships, focused on interrelated
aspects of our social lives:


 Patterns of contact
 Subjective satisfaction
Contact Patterns
Social relationships are based on contact
patterns between two people
 Example: 2 students might see each other
in class on a regular basis, or that contact
might be intermittent such as 2 students
getting together for lunch once a week.
 Contact does not need to be direct for a
social relationship to exist (e.g., email)
 Student’s social life can be understood as
a collection of interactions with other
people.

Environmental & Activity Variables:
These occur within a context
Social
Networks
Social
Relationships
based on: how
often 2 students
interact, how
long, what days,
etc.
Different
patterns of
interaction
among
students
Social
contacts
Social Support
Behaviors
What occurs
between
students
when they
interact
Subjective Satisfaction





Variation among students regarding what
constitutes a desirable social life.
Some individuals prefer to interact with a
small number of people, but interact
frequently
Large number of people, but interact less
frequently
There is no metric for what constitutes a
“good social life”
What would be the best way to define a
“good social life” for a student?
Why are social relationships
important?




Healthier
Happier
More active
When faced with a difficult challenge, a
supportive social network can help them
overcome many of the negative effects of
such events.
 Sarason & Duck, 2001
Importance

Social support- behaviors that are a part of social
interactions
 Emotional support, companionship, access to others,
information, material aid, decision making
 Goal should be to increase a student’s access to social
support & improve student’s ability to provide social support
to others

Membership/belonging- sense of “connectedness”
with others
 Stable and something shared by individuals involved
 Circle of friends (Haring & Breen, 1992)
 Part of their school/community

Personal happiness-be aware of student’s
perception of the adequacy of his or her
relationships (Strully & Strully, 1985)
Processes in Social
Relationships?



What makes social relationships develop?
Still not specifically identified in research
General areas we will discuss relating to
social relationship development &
maintenance




How relationships develop?
Balancing independence and interdependence?
Types of social interactions?
Variables that influence the course of a
relationship?
How social relationships
develop?
Predictable pattern (Goldstein et al., 2001),
3 phases:
 1- Initial social encounters

 Introduced to students
 55% of peers who are initially met go on to second stage

2-Preferred interaction contexts

3- Durable relationships
 Try out different activities with one another
 Make decisions of what form relationship will take
 Majority of relationships do not extend beyond this




Described as friendships
Most satisfactory of relationships
Sustained social interaction
Routine develops
Balancing Independence &
Interdependence

Social relationships influenced by social competence
 Student’s ability to effectively interact and maintain social
interactions
Independently engage in set of behaviors= social
skills
 More independent students are in initiating, taking
turns, and providing reciprocal social support= more
likely to self-determine a happy social life
 Caution: No “readiness” prerequisite to developing
relationships
 Balance with interdependence: able to work
collaboratively with others to accomplish a common
goal (e.g., finding a role within a class
activity/situation…determine what to search,
controlling the mouse, etc. when searching the net)

Contexts & Types of Social
Interaction
Where we interact & what we do are
closely linked
 Schools have 3 broad contexts: class,
break/mealtimes, & brief interactions in
other settings
 Think about what types of social
interactions are “appropriate” during these
times.

Assessing Opportunities for
Interaction
Identify the times & settings to be
assessed.
2. Identify what aspects of a person’s social
life you want to assess.
1.
Formal & informal information gathering Increasing
number of people that student meets?
Maintaining already established social relationships?
3.
Summarize info & make
recommendations
Social Life Assessment
Questions & Suggestions

List the people with whom you interact

What areas of your social life could be
improved?
 Is each person a friend or an acquaintance?
 How many times per week do you interact with each
person?
 In what settings do you interact with each person?
 Does this person know any of the other people you
interact with?
 Would you
person?
 Would you
settings?
 Would you
 Would you
 Would you
like more interactions with a particular
like to interact with this person in new
like to do different activities with this person?
prefer individual or group activities?
like to meet new people?
Top 5 Barriers to social relationships for
students w disabilities
Barriers to Social
Interact/Relationships
Suggested strategies
Access to general education (GE)
settings
Facilitating inclusive placements
Access to peers without
disabilities in GE settings
Peer supports
Classroom participation
Access to GE curriculum
Adaptations/modifications
Skills for facilitating interactions
Pivotal activity skills
Reciprocity skills
Teaching interdependence
Access to peers over time
Class scheduling
Alternative school interaction
opportunities
Afterschool interaction
opportunities
Skills for facilitating
interactions

Pivotal skills for participating in activities
 Teaching a student some of the skills necessary for
participating in an activity gives them a central role
in the social interaction that is valued by others
(Breen & Haring, 1991)
 E.g., playing a computer game w someone,
teaching them to move the cursor

Reciprocity skills
 Taking turns, initiating interactions, choosing
activities, and complementing the other person are
behaviors that may need to be taught.
Designing social skills
instruction




Select appropriate skills




To
To
To
To
enhance communication
promote social inclusion
promote social interaction
display sills important to a specific setting





Function-based
Antecedent/Consequence strategies
Teaching behaviors (Model, Lead, Test)
Promote generalization
Evaluate outcomes
Identify task components
Type of skill deficit
Deliver instruction
Roles of team members in
social skills instruction


Special educator- facilitate assessment, pull in
related- services for communication, design
schedules to provide opportunities, model
interactions, sensitively answer questions of
peers, teach peers to support their class
members.
General educator- model acceptance, answer
peers’ questions, plan activities to meaningfully
include students, provide direct support to
students as they learn, create new opportunities,
encourage peers to support
Role of Peers? Administrators?


Peers- model, prompt, encourage, assist in
planning social activities with peers
Administrators- arrange schedules so that
opportunities exist for integration among
students, work with teachers to integrate
services in classroom, encourage
collaboration between GE & SPED, promote
teaching of social skills at in-service trainings,
appoint a group of teacher, parents, &
students to work with counselors to review
curricula to teach social skills.
Steps to teaching social skills
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Identify social skill strengths, difficulties
& the type of learning problem
(acquisition, fluency,
interfering/competing behaviors).
Set social skills goals for the student.
Select training options that match the
student’s specific social skill difficulty.
Develop a teaching plan & schedule
Implement, evaluate, and improve plan
as needed.


Identify skill
strengths/difficulties
Use Person-centered ecological approach
(including direct observations)
Rating scales- mostly for younger/at-risk
students
 The Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach, 1991)
 Assessment, Evaluation, and Programming System for
Infants and Children (AEPS; Bricker, 2002)
 Early Screening Project (ESP; Walker, Severson, & Feil,
1995)
 Social Skills Rating System (SSRS; Gresham & Elliott, 1990)
 Systematic Screening for Behavior Disorders (SSBD; Walker
& Severson, 1992)
 Walker-McConnell Scale of Social Competence and
School Adjustment (SSCSA; 1995)
Measures of relationships &
friendships
Playmates & Friends Questionnaire for
Teachers (Goldman, Buysse, & Carr,
1997)
 School-based social network form
(Kennedy, Shukla, et al., 1997)
 Student Friendship Perception Survey
(Hendrickson et al., 1996)
 Assessment of Loneliness (Williams &
Asher, 1992)

Critical Social Skills?






Skills needed for making friends and are
essential “prerequisites” to additional,
more complex skills
Entering a group of peers
Suggesting an activity
Sharing materials
Taking turns
Maintaining an interaction for at least 4
exchanges
Janney & Snell, 2006
More critical skills
Exhibiting social reciprocity in
conversation and other interactions
(balanced mutual exchange of information
and ideas)
 Managing conflicts
 Supporting others

 E.g., by offering help and showing suitable affection

Replacement of problem behaviors that
compete with appropriate social behavior
 Function-based interventions, teaching alternative
behaviors
Select teaching options that match the
student’s specific social skill difficulty

Acquisition, performance, interfering
behaviors

Behavioral strategies
 Modeling, role playing, coaching, prompting, scripts
for prompting interaction, and manipulation of
consequences are effective for teaching acquisition
skills (Scheider, 1992)
Cognitive & Affective Strategies



Concentrate on developing greater cognitive
awareness of social situations and
thoughtfully selecting adaptive strategies for
responding to them.
Require students to make their thinking,
planning, and behavior selection processes
conscious (Walker et al., 2004)
Helpful in increasing students’ self-control
and independence, as they do not rely on
adults to provide external control or alter the
situation
Cognitive Strategies are usually used
together with behavioral strategies
Various strategies teach student to:
 1. Identify a cue or trigger that is likely to create a social
difficulty for them (e.g., being told no)
 2. Generate a range of alternatives/behaviors, consider
the consequences of each, and then to decide which is
the best response.

Involve combination of teaching methods,
including modeling, role-playing, etc.
Teaching sequence using
cognitive strategies
In a structured group or individual
lesson, the teacher conducts a didactic
lesson in which the strategy is defined
and explained and the rationale for its
use is provided.
2. Instructors model the strategy to “show”
students how to think about the process;
teacher thinks aloud, “Now I need to ask
myself: ‘What would happen if I did that?
Will that help me to reach my goal?’”
1.
Continued Sequence
Students role-play the skill, first with
coaching from the teacher, then with
decreasing assistance.
4. Students are prompted, coached, and
reinforced as they learn to use the
process and the strategy in situations
during which they interact with others.
3.
Social Problem-Solving
Strategies
Teach students to resolve problems by
generating alternatives to the conflict,
evaluating the pros/cons of each one,
then acting out the best option.
 In addition to the steps in problemsolving, students are taught:

 Listening, taking turns, negotiating, the ability to
assume the perspective of another, and the ability
to maintain a positive attitude

Think-pair-share how you might use this
strategy for teaching your target student
Self-Instructional Strategies
Use of covert or “self-talk” (i.e., thoughts)
to direct one’s behavior.
 Can be used to teach a number of
cognitive & affective strategies, social
problem-solving, anger control, etc.
 (Luria, 1961; Meichenbaum & Goodman,
1971)
 Think-pair-share…how would you use this
strategy?

Anger-Control Strategies




Help individuals identify when they are angry;
Recognize the conditions that trigger their anger,
and the negative outcomes related to aggressive
expressions of anger;
Identify ways to cope with negative feelings,
express anger in appropriate ways, and reduce
aggression.
Strategies include: self-instructional training,
thinking aloud, relaxation training, cognitive
restructuring (Conduct Problems Prevention
Research Group, 1999)
Self-Management Strategies
Involves teaching that is directed toward
improving the student’s independent use
of a social or behavioral skill (Cole &
Bambara, 1992)
 Various combinations of self-management
strategies have been demonstrated to
increase rates of on-task behavior and
school-work participation and decrease
disruptive behavior for students with
significant disabilities (Barry & Messer,
2003; Brooks et al., 2003; Koegel et al.,
1999)

Steps in teaching selfmanagement







Define the target behavior,
Identify practical reinforcers to earn,
Design a self-monitoring system (e.g.,
checklist of steps to follow),
Teach the student to use the system,
Fade the student’s use of the system while
maintaining self-management,
Encourage the use of the system across
natural environments.
Includes: Self-cuing, self-monitoring, selfreinforcement
Self-Cuing Strategies
Involves the use of tools such as class
schedules, checklists, lists of the steps of
a task, and watches that beep to help
remind students or cue them to perform a
target skill or check on their behavior. .
 May not need to be faded, as we all needs
some cuing (e.g., alarm clocks, planners,
etc.)
 Think-pair-share

Self-Monitoring




Student learns to check his/her own
behavior.
Student records each time he/she does a
particular behavior (e.g., completing
assignment, offer assistance to peer)
Well-researched method, highly effective in
improving social interactions (Hughes et al.,
2002; Koegel et al., 1992; Strain et al.,
1994)
A lot of times simply increasing awareness of
the target behavior can bring about behavior
change.
Self-Reinforcement
Student learns to apply rules to give
themselves positive consequences for
performing a target behavior (e.g., talking
to peers who approach them, keeping
hands to self)
 Requires direct instruction and may be
used by adults, peers who have been
taught to apply the methods with their
classmates, or both adults and peers
 Think-pair-share

Contexts & General Approaches
to Teaching Social Skills

Opportunistic (or incidental)
teaching- teach when students are in the
presence of other students and are
engaging in daily routines and activities
(prompt, debrief). Most useful when
working on developing fluency of
acquired skills.
Structured LearningDirect instruction approach that also
incorporates generalization training using
opportunistic teaching (Skillstreaming,
McGinnis & Goldstein, 1997).
 Convene a social skills training group of
students of similar ages.
 Uses steps described earlier: intro skill,
model, role-play, performance feedback.
 Opportunistic teaching of practiced
skills throughout the day is also used.

Peer-Mediated Intervention
Peers taught or guided to assist in
modeling, cuing, and praising specific
social skills.
 Strong research base (McConnell, 2002)
 As effective as one-to-one social skills
training by an adult in improving a
variety of social skills (Odom et al., 1999)
 Strong effects on generalization of
behavior across additional peers, places, &
situations (Odom et al., 1992)

Models of Peer Support




Cooperative Learning Groups- heterogeneous
groups of students work together.
Peer Tutoring- one-to-one instruction on a
particular topic, assignment, or skill by a
classmate, a peer, or an older student.
Class-wide Peer Tutoring- teacher introduces
material, prepares content materials that will be
tutored, new partners assigned each week,
partner pairing (High w/ low; balanced),
reciprocal tutoring is used, teams compete
Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS; Fuchs
et al, 1994)- pairs students based on curriculumbased measures (Hi w/ low), stronger=“coach”,
weaker= “player”, then trade roles.
Peer Support Plan
Class: American History, Ms. Alameda
Student: Chris
Peers: Josh & Aaron
Typical
Activities &
Routine
Expectations
of all students
Needed
adaptations/
supports
Roles of peers
in providing
support
Whole-class
instruction
Listen to
lectures, answer
questions, take
notes
C will receive
guided notes
from teacher;
sit in 1st 2 rows
Help C complete
his notes, share
their notes, ask
clarifying
questions
Small group
instruction
Read case
studies &
answer
application
questions
Be a part of the
same group as
Josh & Aaron
Paraphrase
aspects of
readings for C;
make
connections to
his experiences,
prompt him to
contribute to
Teaching without singling out?
Select teaching methods that match type
of learning problem and context
 Location, time of day, activity, people
present
 Consider the influence of peer networks

 Does social network limit opportunities?
 What social roles might assist the student in
developing new skills or social characteristics?
 Are there peers in the classroom that can positively
elicit and support the student’s new skills without a
social cost to themselves?

Proximity, classwide cooperative group activities,
social skills instruction
Social Skill
Intervention Match
Proper Context
Acquisition or skill
problem
Use direct, structured
instruction (e.g.,
coaching, modeling)
and manipulate
antecedents and
consequences
Use structured small
group initially, then
informal and
naturalistic teaching.
Performance or fluency Use antecedent-control
problem
strategies (e.g., peer
social initiations and
social networks) &
reinforcement-based
procedures
Use informal,
naturalistic approach,
employing incidental
teaching with
performance feedback;
also use peermediated approaches
Interfering or
competing behaviors
Use both formal and
informal approaches;
informal approach in
natural contexts is
essential to replace
existing behavior
problems with needed
social skills
Combination of
procedures while also
teaching alternative
behaviors
Modified from Janney & Snell,
2006
Tools, lessons, resources?
For middle/high school students
The ACCESS Program: Adolescent Curriculum for
Communication and Effective Social Skills (Walker et al.,
1988)
 Cited as having “potential effectiveness”
 Socially validated core skills
 ASSET: A Social Skills Program for Adolescents (Hazel et al.,
1981)
 Cited as having “potential effectiveness”
 Excellent content validity on core skills and situations which
could be applied
 Navigating the Social World: A Curriculum for Individuals with
Asperger’s Syndrome (McAffee, 2002).
 No research has been conducted
 The Prepare Curriculum: Teaching Prosocial Competencies
(Goldstein, 1988)

 Cited as incorporating many strategies known to promote
generalization and maintenance of social behavior
Considering the use of commercial
social skills programs
Does the program target the appropriate
population of students?
 Does the purpose of the curriculum match
the students’ needs and goals?
 Does the program promote social
competence rather than merely the
acquisition of discrete skills?
 Are the amounts of structure and effort
required to implement the program
reasonably balanced against the likely
outcomes?

Generalization of social skills/
included in teaching plan
Plan should address the following questions:
 Is staff training or additional staff/volunteer support
needed?
 Is parental involvement adequate; is a home
component needed in the plan?
 How will we schedule instruction and integrate into
student routines?
 Will we group students, teach individual students, or
both?
 What materials and adult resources will we need?
 How will we promote generalization?
 What easy-to-use and meaningful ways will we use to
monitor student progress before, during, and after
training?
Implementing, evaluating, and
improving the plan as needed
Team considers difficulties student may
have with generalizing new social skills
and plan to promote skill transfer.
 Identify meaningful outcome measures to
assess the success of the program.
 Generate ways to strengthen programs
that are not producing the skill
improvements for which they have aimed.

Preventing generalization
problems








Use natural contexts early and often.
Include peers in training.
Use structured and formal instruction for skill
acquisition.
Then use less structured, informal, and naturalistic
settings for generalization.
Teach behaviors that are valued in everyday settings
(naturally reinforced).
Train across people, places, and situations that the
student encounters daily.
Fade training arrangements (special reinforcement).
Prompt and reinforce the use of skills in relevant new
situations.