This document provides information on social skills instruction for students with autism spectrum disorders. It defines autism and discusses characteristics that may be present, including difficulties with social skills, communication, and behavior. The document outlines several evidence-based social skills programs and strategies that can be used, such as social stories, direct instruction of skills, modeling, role playing, and using interests to motivate students. It emphasizes defining the target skill, modeling, practice, and feedback to effectively teach social skills to students with autism.
1. Social Skills Instruction for Students
with Autism Spectrum Disorders
Nicole Coneby, LSW, BCBA
Assistant Director
Beautiful Minds of Princeton
director_familyservices@comcast.net
www.beautifulmindsofprinceton.com
2. Layman’s Definition
A developmental disability that:
– appears during the first 3 years of life.
– a spectrum of abilities that range from mild to severe
– mainly affecting in areas dealing with:
• social interaction
• communication
• leisure or play skill
Each child is different and presents a different combination of
symptoms and severity
3. What It Is and Isn’t
Autism is:
• A disorder that lasts throughout the lifespan.
• A disorder to which there is no known cure.
• A spectrum disorder that manifests in each individual
differently.
Autism isn’t:
• A disorder that should bar a student from an education.
• A disorder synonymous with intellectual disability .
• A disorder that prevents students from acquiring
academic abilities.
4. Possible Things You May See
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Hard to distinguish fiction/reality
Special interests
Enjoys routines
Difficulty reading social cues and body language
Can be perfectionist about work products
Rigid, inflexible thinking
Planning ahead difficult
Difficulty generalizing
Sensory issues (hyper/hypo)
Visual/Auditory processing
5. Possible Things You May See
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Can have high levels of stress/anxiety
Difficulty reading others/expressing emotions
Perspective-taking difficulties
Literal thinker
Trouble with the gray areas (black/white)
Strong moral code/sense of justice
7. Abilities
Strengths:
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Numbers &/or Math
Memorization
Routines
Pay close attention to detail
Concentrate for very long
periods of time on one thing
Typically visual learners
Reading (decoding)
Honest/genuine
Perfectionist
Weaknesses:
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Appropriate language
Impulsive
Reading comprehension
Social skills & comprehending
social cues
Inflexible
Sensory processing
Eye Contact
Play skills
Obsessive
Sometimes delayed reactions
This is not an exhaustive list and each child has different strengths and weaknesses
8. Social Skills
• Social Stories
• Direct Skill Instruction
• Hidden agenda (discuss body language)
• Fade support as soon as possible to decrease dependence
• Foster appropriate peer and staff social interactions
• Find out what they are good at and use it to their
advantage (e.g. have student read to the class)
9. Social Skills Training
• Some programs out there…
– Hidden Curriculum (Brenda Myles Smith)
– Social Stories (Gray 1994)
– Social Autopsies (Richard Lavoie)
– Comic Strip Conversations (Gray 1994)
– Mind reading (Howling et al.)
– I Laugh (Michelle Winner)
– Parent Coaching (Steven Richfield)
10. Before You Start
• Ask yourself the following questions
– What skill deficit is the student displaying?
• Performance Deficit- (won’t do problem)- the student knows
how but does not use the skill.
• Fluency Deficit- the student needs practice using the skill to
demonstrate competence.
• Acquisition Deficit - (can’t do problem)- the student does not
know how to use the skill.
• Maintenance or generalization problem - the student
demonstrates the skill appropriately in some, but not all
settings.
– What behavior do you want to teach the child in place
of the deficit?
11. Skillstreaming
• This is a program developed by Ellen McGinnis &
Arnold Goldstein (McGinnis & Arnold, 1997)
• This includes
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Explanation of the skills steps
Modeling
Role playing with feedback
Practice of the newly learned skills inside and outside the
group
12. Direct Social Skills Instruction
Key components of effective social skills instruction:
Define the skill
Model the skill (example & non-example)
Role-play
Feedback
Another way to view it: 3-D approach
Discuss Demonstrate and Do (from Behavior Therapy
Associates)
13. Direct Instruction
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Think of a specific skill (e.g. greeting, dealing
with anger, etc)
Break down the skill into steps (task analysis)
Teach each of the skills
Generalize across settings, staff, materials
14. Following Directions
1. Listen carefully to the instructions
2. Ask questions about anything you don’t
understand
3. Repeat the instructions to yourself (or the
person)
4. Follow instructions
From Skillstreaming task analysis of Following Directions pg. 95
15. Modeling & Role-Play
• Modeling
– Show the correct way and the incorrect way
– Modeler should “talk aloud” about the steps they
are taking
• Role-play
– Give students the opportunity to practice the skill
– Be as realistic as possible in creating situations
16. One Way to Do It
• Have modeler talk aloud/demonstrate
steps, but “forget” one
• Students job to figure out what step was
missed/done incorrectly
• Can use a checklist to aid student’s in
identifying missed/incorrect step
17. Coaching
• Coaching & Cueing
– Preemptively prompt as much as possible
– In a situation, try and remind the student what
options they have available.
– Incidental Teaching
– Social Autopsy- take what happened and discuss
or dissect it
18. Feedback & Reinforcement
• Feedback
– Peers and staff should give feedback on what the role-play
participants did well and areas for improvement
• Reinforcement
– Behavior specific praise (“That was a great job
remembering to raise your hand”, “I like the way you came
and asked me for help”)
– Provide reinforcement as soon as possible after the
appropriate behavior
– Make sure the reinforcement is personally meaningful to
the individual
19. Social Stories™
• Developed by Carol Gray and colleagues (Gray
et al., 1993)
• Uses stories written in the first person to
increase awareness of problematic situations.
• Describes what is happening, why, and how
people feel and think in a situation
20. Writing a Social Story™
• Includes Four Sentence Types
– Descriptive
– Perspective
– Directive
– Affirmative
21. Descriptive Sentences
• These are truthful statements of fact that
describe who, what where, and when
statements.
ie. My name is __________.
I go to _________ School.
I ride a school bus.
22. Perspective
• These statements usually refer to other
people. They describe a person’s
thoughts, beliefs, opinions, emotions, or
condition.
ie. Many children like race cars.
My teacher understands math.
23. Directive
• These statements give a suggested response
to a situation. They are always worded in a
positive way in order to describe what the
student should do, not a should not.
ie. I will try to…
I can try to..
I may…
24. Affirmative
• These statements add emphasis to a
statement. They can be used to express
common values or opinions.
Ie. This is a good thing.
This is alright to do.
25. How to Introduce & Use
• Review before a situation where the skill
would be needed
• At the beginning of the day
• After an incident has occurred where skill use
is beneficial
• On a periodic basis to refresh
26. Variations
• Modified Social Story (does not follow all of Gray’s
guidelines including ratio or textual components)
• Adapting some of the language and usage for a
behavior contract
• Making it more interactive by using Velcro strips and
pictures to change the student’s choices (e.g. student
selects appropriate feeling picture and attaches it to
Velcro strip in the sentence)
27. Variations (cont)
• Using real photos of the staff and/or students doing
the appropriate skill (e.g. picture of student raising
his hand, student walking appropriately down the
hallway)
• Audiotaping the story being read (by
student, teacher, parent, etc)
• Videotaping the student modeling the skill and/or
reading story (voice-over, etc)
28. Pros
• Capitalizes on the visual strengths on many
students with autism
• Unobtrusive and possibly less stigmatizing
• Concrete description of social skill that can be
easily and repeatedly referenced
29. Considerations
• More research is needed to flesh out which
parts of Social Stories are key to success.
• Much research on Social Stories is anecdotal
or utilizes a single-subject A-B design
• It should not be used as the only social skills
intervention
• Should be linked with functional assessment
30. Power Card Strategy
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Developed by Gagnon (2001)
Based on visual support literature and
priming
Utilizes student’s special interests
Two parts:
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Personalized script (read prior to event)
Power Card
31. The Script
• Brief scenario about special interest/hero and the
behavior/situation in need of work
• Visual cues (photos, drawings, etc) related to
special interest
• Brief scenario where hero/model attempts to
solve behavior problem child struggles with
• 3-5 step strategy outlining the way to solve the
problem and how it was successful
• Note of encouragement from the hero (Ex:
Smokey the Bear says only you can prevent forest
fires)
32. Power Card
• Small card (size of trading card, bookmark, or
business card)
• Synthesizes script, in particular the steps
necessary to solve the problem
• Reference to special interest
33. Implementation
• Start by introducing both the script & the
Power Card together
• After a pre-set amount of time, allow student
to choose between reading the script or just
reviewing the Power Card
• Eventually fade to use of Power Card only
34. Expansion
• Student can carry around key ring with various
cards on it to assist in social situations
• Student can place inside wallet for reminders
• Power Card can be placed on corner of
desk/inside desk to provide a visual reminder
of the skill that needs to be demonstrated
35. Power Card Script
• Scenario about special interest and the behavior
in need of work
• Images related to special interests
• Scenario where special interest model attempts
to solve problem the student struggles with
• 3-5 step strategy outlining the way to solve the
problem and how it was successful
• Note of encouragement from the special interest
36. Lunch Buddies
• Pairing the child with a more social peer in
order to promote friendships and
relationships in the during lunch/recess
periods.
37. Recess Groups
• Structured Recess Time
• Identify general education peers that would like to be
involved in play groups
• Identify activities in which the students would
understand and be successful with
• Identify staff to facilitate play groups
• Prior to recess, assign all students to a particular
activity for the day.
• Staff will facilitate group
• Students are assigned to a new activity next time
Adapted from program at Central Bucks School District
38. Student Preference Surveys
• Helping students develop relationships with
peers by surveying student interest and
grouping accordingly
ie. Discovering which students like a particular
activity such as videogames, sports, and trading
cards and promoting friendships based on these
interests
39. Situational Training
• Priming the skill prior to a particular activity
and setting a goal so the child uses the skill.
ie. “During recess your goal is to play with one
friend, and when you come in I want to hear
all about it.”
40. Video Modeling
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Involves watching a video demonstration and then imitating the
behavior of the model
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Models can be:
– Self (video self-modeling)
• Positive self-review (PSR)
– Edit video clips to show student engaging in
appropriate behavior
• Edit video clips to show student showing inappropriate
behavior
• Video feed forward
– takes skills student possesses and sequences them
correctly
– takes skills student can do with prompts, and edit out
the prompts
– Peer, Adult, Point of View modeling
41. Beautiful Minds of Princeton
“Teach, Reach, & Expand Potential”
For more information:
Call: 1-800-675-2709
Email: director_familyservices@comcast.net
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