1. Social Skills Instruction
Chapter 7

2. What are social skills
Social skills as defined by the book are skills that are learned behaviors that enable students to interact appropriately with their peers and others.
What happens when children are socially skilled?

3. Lack of social readiness
How does having a lack of social skills impact students with EBD?
What part of the IDEA definition applies to students with EBD?
How does student success depend on being socially skilled: school, home, and community.

4. Compare and Contrast
Take a minute with a peer and compare and contrast students that have social awareness to students that lack social skills.
What do you observe as far as behavior?
How do children pick up social skills?

5. Father Flanagan
There is no such thing as a bad boy. There is only bad training, bad environment, and bad examples.
How does this statement apply to students that lack in social skills abilities?

6. Formal Instruction
Teaching our students with EBD social skills, should be an important part of the day.
It needs to be noted that teaching social skills is different from teaching students social competence.
What skill needs to be applied when, how, and why.

7. Findings for social skills training SST
There are 6 findings of SST based on recent studies…page 166
Social skills targeted were socially valid
Performance deficits are confused with skill deficit
Social skills lacked intensity
Some curricula was presented as research
Skills targeted were not appropriate from intervention (replacement skills)
Social skills were not taught in context that are relevant

8. Formal Social Skills Instruction
Summary: Social Skills instruction must include skills that students feel meet their needs and, therefore produce socially valid outcomes.
Be taught in relevant contexts.
An integral part of the students’ total curriculum.

9. Social Skills Assessment
Effective Instruction is based on accurate and ongoing assessment of students social skills needs.
Needs based Assessment
It is flexible and responsive to students’ changing needs as well as any contextual changes that may occur in the environment.

10. Identification of skills
Identification (what to teach)
Instruction (who, where, what)
It must be flexible and responsive to meet the changing needs of the student

11. Purpose
Social skills assessments are used to screen the general social competence of individual groups of students
Assessment strategies are used to collect information about the nature of a student’s social skills problem
Social skills assessments are conducted to assist in selecting and modifying curriculum
Assessment information is used to monitor and evaluate progress

12. Social Skills Training
Validity
Reliability
Practicality
Three most commonly used assessments in planning social skills training:
Direct Observation
Rating scales
Behavioral interviews

13. Rating Scales
Take into account the relationship of the person doing the rating
Very useful for students that are nonverbal or are noncompliant and are unable to rate themselves
They offer global rather than specific information
2 most common rating scales:
Social Skills Rating Scale (SSRS) and Walker McConnell Scales of Social Competence and School Adjustment

14. Purpose of Rating Scales
Social Skills Domain: communication, cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, engagement, and self-control
Problem Behaviors: Behaviors that interfere with acquiring or the performance of the social skill
Academic Competence: reading, math, motivation, parent support, and general cognitive functioning

15. Behavioral Interviews
During behavioral interviews students and their peers, teachers, or parents reconstruct social interactions and events
Settings
Behavioral competencies
Skills possession
Consequences
Assessment
Kerr and Nelson research page 168
Interviewing is essential to an FBA

16. Direct Observation
Observer is looking for characteristics of problem behavior. Such as; frequency, duration, latency. Page 169
Naturalistic Functional Assessment (NFA)
Naturally occurring environmental factors
All behavior is purposeful and serves as a function for the student.
What is the function of this behavior?
- to get something - To get out of something - sensory stimulation

17. Culture Influence of the child’s culture on his or her behavior
Integration of cultural values and norms
Social skills curricula that promotes understanding of other cultures
Multiple instructional strategies
The need for teaching procedures and expectations before instructing social skills

18. Assumptions of Social Skills Instruction
There are many different assumptions on Social skills instruction
Page 170

19. Structured social skills lessons
Modeling
Role-playing Last example they have to see is a POSITIVE EXAMPLE. Students NEVER do a negative behavior. Students correct bad behaviors.
Coaching- secretary (working on greeting)
Feedback
Generalization
Generalization principles page 172 know these

20. Phases of Implementation
There are many stages of implementation of a structured learning approach with students with EBD. Page 172

21. Elksin and Elksin
Study conducted on incorporating several structured lesson techniques. Page 172

22. Presocial Skills What are presocial skills…think pre?
Feelings of emotion
Why do you think it is hard for many of our students to practice these skills?
Conisder the following
Feelings
Attitude
peers

23. Social Skills Strategy Instruction
Promote student awareness by pointing out to them that a social skill problem exists.
Make the students aware of the problem
Articulate the problem and consequences
Cite real examples
Relate insight into why he/she engages in the problem behavior
Think of alternatives
Develop a plan

24. Social Skills Strategy Instruction
Use Journaling
Effective strategy to use when coupled with other strategies
Keep notes on journal
Discuss their progress
reflect

25. Social Skills Instruction
Make Contracts
Make contracts with the students when certain social skills are targeted and student agree to use them. Think social contracts.
The purpose of the contract is to gain a commitment to the desired behavior.
Respect agreement: restorative discipline

26. Social Skills Intruction
Use Role Play
Guidelines for effective role plays
Establish clear objectives (new ways to avoid troubled behavior)
Identify roles
Establish what the observer should be looking for
Never have the students perform the inappropriate behavior

27. Published Social Skills Curricula
There are over 70 documented curricula programs available to use that adress the social needs of students with EBD!

28. How to choose what to teach
Page 175

29. Informal Social Skills Instruction
Students with EBD engage in fewer positive social interactions with their peers because of their lack of social abilities.
By definition, students struggle with maintaining appropriate peer relationships.
Why do so many classrooms isolate problem students, how is that going to fix the problem.

30. Social Competence and Social Skills
What is social competence?
Social Validity
Gresham (1986):
Social Competence is an evaluative term based on judgments that a person has performed a task adequately. These judgments may be based on opinions of significant others, comparisons to a explicit criteria, or comparisons

31. Social tasks This model focuses on social tasks
Social interactions include a specific context
A social goal or outcome
A social task
A set of social behaviors or social skills

32. Antisocial Behavior
Antisocial behaviors are polar opposite of societal norms.
Willingness to commit rule infractions
Defiance to adult figures
Hostility toward others
Boys that demonstrate antisocial behaviors are more likely to experience school failure

33. Social Skills in Educational Settings
What are some important social skills that students need to function in the school setting
Intolerable acts as determined by teachers. Page 177

34. Challenges to the development of Social Competence
At Risk Variables: abuse, neglect, poverty, dysfunctional family, drugs, unpredictable family situations, poor education programming, INDIFFERENT EDUCATORS!
Affective Distortions: problems interpreting social cues, emotions, and feelings during social interactions

35. Challenges to the development of Social Competence
Cognitive Distortions: The way students with EBD think about themselves. Poor self concepts
Language Disorder: Difficulty with expressive and receptive language.
Educational Environments: Creating an environment that fosters positive peers relationships

36. Friendship Development
Page 182
Factors that impact friendship development

37. Classroom Management Encouraging Prosocial
Poor social skills result in behavior problems
Behavior management is more than consistency and control
We must teach our students how to cope and learn new socially appropriate skills.
PG 179

39. Behavior Management
Use social reinforces such as praise, attention, and approval
Praise and praise often in the beginning while students are mastering new skills.
Once students are experiencing success, you may vary the schedule of reinforcement

40. Levels System Level systems are similar to token economies.
The issue with levels systems lies in if it violates rules covered under IDEA.
Linking privileges to student behavior, they are after all Emotionally Impaired.

41. Social or Behavior Intent
We already know that all behavior serves a function, to get something, to get out of something, and for sensory input
What about:
Attention
Escape/avoid
Control
Protection
Acceptance/affiliation
Expression
Justice/revenge

42. There is so much to consider
An effective social skills lesson:
Short and sweet: no more than 20 minutes
Valid
Applicable
Reinforcable
Data driven
generalized

43. Social Task Defined
Social tasks are the problems a student faces or deals with when trying to achieve a social goal in a particular situation.
Page 184

44. Social Skills or Behavior
Gresham: those behaviors which within a given situation predict important social outcomes.
Page 184

45. Implications for teaching social skills
Summary of implications
Page 185

46. Teachable Moments
Our students are very good at making their own curriculum
They provide an endless flow of teachable moments for us to address.