Epilepsy, language, and social skills.

PubMed

Caplan, Rochelle

2017-10-04

Language and social skills are essential for intrapersonal and interpersonal functioning and quality of life. Since epilepsy impacts these important domains of individuals' functioning, understanding the psychosocial and biological factors involved in the relationship among epilepsy, language, and social skills has important theoretical and clinical implications. This review first describes the psychosocial and biological factors involved in the association between language and social behavior in children and in adults and their relevance for epilepsy. It reviews the findings of studies of social skills and the few studies conducted on the inter-relationship of language and social skills in pediatric and adult epilepsy. The paper concludes with suggested future research and clinical directions that will enhance early identification and treatment of epilepsy patients at risk for impaired language and social skills. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Social skills programmes for schizophrenia.

PubMed

Almerie, Muhammad Qutayba; Okba Al Marhi, Muhammad; Jawoosh, Muhammad; Alsabbagh, Mohamad; Matar, Hosam E; Maayan, Nicola; Bergman, Hanna

2015-06-09

Social skills programmes (SSP) are treatment strategies aimed at enhancing the social performance and reducing the distress and difficulty experienced by people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia and can be incorporated as part of the rehabilitation package for people with schizophrenia. The primary objective is to investigate the effects of social skills training programmes, compared to standard care, for people with schizophrenia. We searched the Cochrane Schizophrenia Group's Trials Register (November 2006 and December 2011) which is based on regular searches of CINAHL, BIOSIS, AMED, EMBASE, PubMed, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and registries of clinical trials. We inspected references of all identified studies for further trials.A further search for studies has been conducted by the Cochrane Schizophrenia Group in 2015, 37 citations have been found and are currently being assessed by review authors. We included all relevant randomised controlled trials for social skills programmes versus standard care involving people with serious mental illnesses. We extracted data independently. For dichotomous data we calculated risk ratios (RRs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CI) on an intention-to-treat basis. For continuous data, we calculated mean differences (MD) and 95% CIs. We included 13 randomised trials (975 participants). These evaluated social skills programmes versus standard care, or discussion group. We found evidence in favour of social skills programmes compared to standard care on all measures of social functioning. We also found that rates of relapse and rehospitalisation were lower for social skills compared to standard care (relapse: 2 RCTs, n = 263, RR 0.52 CI 0.34 to 0.79, very low quality evidence), (rehospitalisation: 1 RCT, n = 143, RR 0.53 CI 0.30 to 0.93, very low quality evidence) and participants' mental state results (1 RCT, n = 91, MD -4.01 CI -7.52 to -0.50, very low quality evidence) were better in the group receiving social skill programmes

Automated social skills training with audiovisual information.

PubMed

Tanaka, Hiroki; Sakti, Sakriani; Neubig, Graham; Negoro, Hideki; Iwasaka, Hidemi; Nakamura, Satoshi

2016-08-01

People with social communication difficulties tend to have superior skills using computers, and as a result computer-based social skills training systems are flourishing. Social skills training, performed by human trainers, is a well-established method to obtain appropriate skills in social interaction. Previous works have attempted to automate one or several parts of social skills training through human-computer interaction. However, while previous work on simulating social skills training considered only acoustic and linguistic features, human social skills trainers take into account visual features (e.g. facial expression, posture). In this paper, we create and evaluate a social skills training system that closes this gap by considering audiovisual features regarding ratio of smiling, yaw, and pitch. An experimental evaluation measures the difference in effectiveness of social skill training when using audio features and audiovisual features. Results showed that the visual features were effective to improve users' social skills.

Targeting Social Skills Deficits in an Adolescent with Pervasive Developmental Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hagopian, Louis P.; Kuhn, David E.; Strother, Geri E.

2009-01-01

Social skills deficits are a defining feature of individuals diagnosed with autism and other pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), which can impair functioning and put the individual at higher risk for developing problem behavior (e.g., self-injury, aggression). In the current study, an adolescent with PDD displayed inappropriate social…

Integration of a Social Skills Training: A Case Study of Children with Low Social Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Choi, Dong Hwa; Md-Yunus, Sham'ah

2011-01-01

This study explores changes in children's social skills after a cognitive-social skills model intervention. The intervention was conducted over a period of 12 weeks within a regular preschool setting. Sixteen children including four considered to have low social skills participated in the study. Data analysis revealed that the four children with…

Comprehensive Social Skills Taxonomy: Development and Application.

PubMed

Kauffman, Nancy A; Kinnealey, Moya

2015-01-01

We developed a comprehensive social skills taxonomy based on archived children's social skill goal sheets, and we applied the taxonomy to 6,897 goals of children in 6 diagnostic categories to explore patterns related to diagnosis. We used a grounded theory approach to code and analyze social skill goals and develop the taxonomy. Multivariate analysis of variance and Tukey post hoc honestly significant difference test were used to analyze differences in social skill needs among diagnostic groups. We developed a taxonomy of 7 social skill constructs or categories, descriptions, and behavioral indicators. The 7 social skill categories were reflected across 6 diagnostic groups, and differences in social skill needs among groups were identified. This comprehensive taxonomy of social skills can be useful in developing research-based individual, group, or institutional programming to improve social skills. Copyright © 2015 by the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.

Using a Process Social Skills Training Approach with Adolescents with Mild Intellectual Disabilities in a High School Setting.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Reilly, Mark F.; Glynn, Dawn

1995-01-01

A process social skills training approach was implemented and evaluated with two high school students having mild intellectual disabilities and social skills deficits. The intervention package was successful in promoting generalization of targeted social skills from the training setting to the classroom for both students. Participants had…

SOCIAL: an integrative framework for the development of social skills.

PubMed

Beauchamp, Miriam H; Anderson, Vicki

2010-01-01

Despite significant advances in the field of social neuroscience, much remains to be understood regarding the development and maintenance of social skills across the life span. Few comprehensive models exist that integrate multidisciplinary perspectives and explain the multitude of factors that influence the emergence and expression of social skills. Here, a developmental biopsychosocial model (SOCIAL) is offered that incorporates the biological underpinnings and socio-cognitive skills that underlie social function (attention/executive function, communication, socio-emotional skills), as well as the internal and external (environmental) factors that mediate these skills. The components of the model are discussed in the context of the social brain network and are supported by evidence from 3 conditions known to affect social functioning (autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia, and traumatic brain injury). This integrative model is intended to provide a theoretical structure for understanding the origins of social dysfunction and the factors that influence the emergence of social skills through childhood and adolescence in both healthy and clinical populations.

What's the Buzz? A Social Skills Enrichment Programme for Primary Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Le Messurier, Mark; Parker, Madhavi Nawana

2011-01-01

Some children, for all manner of reasons, struggle to make friends and fit in socially. "What's the Buzz?" is a unique sixteen-lesson social skills enrichment programme designed to explicitly teach children how to think and relate to others in social situations. This lively, highly practical role-play and play-based programme targets everyday…

The Feasibility and Effects of a Parent-Facilitated Social Skills Training Program on Social Engagement of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Radley, Keith C.; Jenson, William R.; Clark, Elaine; O'Neill, Robert E.

2014-01-01

Due to impairments in social interactions and communication, children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have a need for effective social skills training programs. However, many programs fail due to a lack of acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of target skills. The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and…

Computer-Assisted Face Processing Instruction Improves Emotion Recognition, Mentalizing, and Social Skills in Students with ASD.

PubMed

Rice, Linda Marie; Wall, Carla Anne; Fogel, Adam; Shic, Frederick

2015-07-01

This study examined the extent to which a computer-based social skills intervention called FaceSay was associated with improvements in affect recognition, mentalizing, and social skills of school-aged children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). FaceSay offers students simulated practice with eye gaze, joint attention, and facial recognition skills. This randomized control trial included school-aged children meeting educational criteria for autism (N = 31). Results demonstrated that participants who received the intervention improved their affect recognition and mentalizing skills, as well as their social skills. These findings suggest that, by targeting face-processing skills, computer-based interventions may produce changes in broader cognitive and social-skills domains in a cost- and time-efficient manner.

Comparability of the Social Skills Improvement System to the Social Skills Rating System: A Norwegian Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gamst-Klaussen, Thor; Rasmussen, Lene-Mari P.; Svartdal, Frode; Strømgren, Børge

2016-01-01

The Social Skills Improvement System-Rating Scales (SSIS-RS) is a multi-informant instrument assessing social skills and problem behavior in children and adolescents. It is a revised version of the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS). A Norwegian translation of the SSRS has been validated, but this has not yet been done for the Norwegian…

Social cognition, social skill, and the broad autism phenotype.

PubMed

Sasson, Noah J; Nowlin, Rachel B; Pinkham, Amy E

2013-11-01

Social-cognitive deficits differentiate parents with the "broad autism phenotype" from non-broad autism phenotype parents more robustly than other neuropsychological features of autism, suggesting that this domain may be particularly informative for identifying genetic and brain processes associated with the phenotype. The current study examined whether the social-cognitive deficits associated with the broad autism phenotype extend to the general population and relate to reduced social skill. A total of 74 undergraduates completed the Broad Autism Phenotype Questionnaire, three standardized social-cognitive tasks, and a live social interaction with an unfamiliar research assistant. Social broad autism phenotype traits were significantly associated with deficits in social cognition and reduced social skill. In addition, the relationship between social broad autism phenotype traits and social skill was partially mediated by social cognition, suggesting that the reduced interpersonal ability associated with the broad autism phenotype occurs in part because of poorer social-cognitive ability. Together, these findings indicate that the impairments in social cognition and social skill that characterize autism spectrum disorder extend in milder forms to the broad autism phenotype in the general population and suggest a framework for understanding how social broad autism phenotype traits may manifest in diminished social ability.

Effects of a Social Skills Intervention on Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Peers with Shared Deficits

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Radley, Keith C.; O'Handley, Roderick D.; Battaglia, Allison A.; Lum, John D. K.; Dadakhodjaeva, Komila; Ford, William B.; McHugh, Melissa B.

2017-01-01

The current study evaluated the effects of the "Superheroes Social Skills" program (Jenson et al. 2011) in promoting accurate demonstration of target social skills in training and generalization conditions in young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and peers with shared social deficits. Three preschool-age children with ASD…

The use of skilled strategies in social interactions by groups high and low in self-reported social skill.

PubMed

Channon, Shelley; Collins, Ruth; Swain, Eleanor; Young, Mary-Beth; Fitzpatrick, Sian

2012-07-01

Individuals high or low in self-reported social skill were recruited opportunistically. When presented with everyday social scenarios ending with an awkward request or offer, the high social skill participants more often used sophisticated strategies that showed greater consideration for all parties. By contrast, the low skill participants were more reliant on simple strategies including acquiescence or refusal, and the emotional tone of their responses was less positive. Greater reliance on sophisticated rather than simple strategies may be linked to more successful social interactions. The potential implications are considered for understanding everyday performance in skilled individuals and populations with limited social skills, such as those with autistic spectrum disorders.

Preschool Children's Interest, Social-Emotional Skills, and Emergent Mathematics Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doctoroff, Greta L.; Fisher, Paige H.; Burrows, Bethany M.; Edman, Maria Tsepilovan

2016-01-01

This cross-sectional study examined the relationship between interest, social-emotional skills, and early math skills in preschool children. Math-specific interest and global interest in learning were measured using teacher report and a play-based observation task. Math skills were assessed with a test of math achievement, and social-emotional…

Individual Characteristics, Family Factors, and Classroom Experiences as Predictors of Low-Income Kindergarteners' Social Skills.

PubMed

Griffith, Shayl; Arnold, David; Voegler-Lee, Mary-Ellen; Kupersmidt, Janis

2016-01-01

There has been increasing awareness of the need for research and theory to take into account the intersection of individual characteristics and environmental contexts when examining predictors of child outcomes. The present longitudinal, multi-informant study examined the cumulative and interacting contributions of child characteristics (language skills, inattention/hyperactivity, and aggression) and preschool and family contextual factors in predicting kindergarten social skills in 389 low-income preschool children. Child characteristics and classroom factors, but not family factors, predicted teacher-rated kindergarten social skills, while child characteristics alone predicted change in teacher-rated social skills from preschool to kindergarten. Child characteristics and family factors, but not classroom factors, predicted parent-rated kindergarten social skills. Family factors alone predicted change in parent-rated social skills from preschool to kindergarten. Individual child characteristics did not interact with family or classroom factors in predicting parent- or teacher-rated social skills, and support was therefore found for an incremental, rather than an interactive, predictive model of social skills. The findings underscore the importance of assessing outcomes in more than one context, and of considering the impact of both individual and environmental contextual factors on children's developing social skills when designing targeted intervention programs to prepare children for kindergarten.

Individual Characteristics, Family Factors, and Classroom Experiences as Predictors of Low-Income Kindergarteners’ Social Skills

PubMed Central

Griffith, Shayl; Arnold, David; Voegler-Lee, Mary-Ellen; Kupersmidt, Janis

2017-01-01

There has been increasing awareness of the need for research and theory to take into account the intersection of individual characteristics and environmental contexts when examining predictors of child outcomes. The present longitudinal, multi-informant study examined the cumulative and interacting contributions of child characteristics (language skills, inattention/hyperactivity, and aggression) and preschool and family contextual factors in predicting kindergarten social skills in 389 low-income preschool children. Child characteristics and classroom factors, but not family factors, predicted teacher-rated kindergarten social skills, while child characteristics alone predicted change in teacher-rated social skills from preschool to kindergarten. Child characteristics and family factors, but not classroom factors, predicted parent-rated kindergarten social skills. Family factors alone predicted change in parent-rated social skills from preschool to kindergarten. Individual child characteristics did not interact with family or classroom factors in predicting parent- or teacher-rated social skills, and support was therefore found for an incremental, rather than an interactive, predictive model of social skills. The findings underscore the importance of assessing outcomes in more than one context, and of considering the impact of both individual and environmental contextual factors on children’s developing social skills when designing targeted intervention programs to prepare children for kindergarten. PMID:28804528

Social skills training as nursing intervention to improve the social skills and self-esteem of inpatients with chronic schizophrenia.

PubMed

Seo, Ji-Min; Ahn, Sukhee; Byun, Eun-Kyung; Kim, Chul-Kweon

2007-12-01

The effects of social skills training on the social skills and self-esteem of 66 patients with chronic schizophrenia were evaluated using the basic training and problem-solving training models. The experimental group received 16 group training sessions, and the control group received routine nursing care. The training program consisted of two parts: conversational skills and assertiveness skills. Data were collected at pretreatment and posttreatment. The conversational, interpersonal relationship, and assertiveness skills, and self-esteem of the experimental group showed significant improvement, whereas problem-solving skills did not improve. The results indicate that training in social skills is effective for improving the social skills and self-esteem of inpatients with chronic schizophrenia.

Enhancing Academic Achievement through Direct Instruction of Social Skills.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bendt, Lori; Nunan, Jan

This paper examines the impact of the explicit teaching of social skills to enhance academic achievement. The targeted population comprised kindergarten and second grade students in a middle-class community located in central Illinois. The problem of inappropriate behaviors and difficulties interacting with peers and how this may affect academic…

The Use of Skilled Strategies in Social Interactions by Groups High and Low in Self-Reported Social Skill

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Channon, Shelley; Collins, Ruth; Swain, Eleanor; Young, Mary-Beth; Fitzpatrick, Sian

2012-01-01

Individuals high or low in self-reported social skill were recruited opportunistically. When presented with everyday social scenarios ending with an awkward request or offer, the high social skill participants more often used sophisticated strategies that showed greater consideration for all parties. By contrast, the low skill participants were…

Exploring the Effects of Social Skills Training on Social Skill Development on Student Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seevers, Randy L.; Jones-Blank, Michelle

2008-01-01

Most children learn social skills from interaction with others--other children, family members, friends, and adults. Some children with disabilities need to learn social skills more directly. This may include the use of a specific curriculum and the use of individualized methods. The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of social…

Social skills in dysphonic children.

PubMed

Silva, Maíra da; Batista, Ana Priscila; Oliveira, Jáima Pinheiro de; Dassie-Leite, Ana Paula

2012-01-01

To obtain and analyze data from the social skills evaluation of dysphonic children. This is a cross-sectional and prospective study. Participants were 38 children enrolled in a public school, ranging in age from 7 to 11 years. They were separated into two groups: Study Group (SG)--19 dysphonic children; Control Group (CG)--19 non-dysphonic children. The groups were matched by gender and age range. Children with any history of organic vocal problems, according to the identification and investigation of general and vocal health questionnaire, which was answered by the legal guardian, were excluded. The Multimedia Social Skills Inventoire for Children (MUSSIC) was applied, which consists of 21 social interaction situations represented by photos, having a child as the leading figure. For each situation, the participant should select one out of three behaviors, putting themselves in the place of the main character. Each response corresponds to one out of three types of reaction: assertive, passive and aggressive. Data were statistically analyzed. There was no difference between the groups on the social skills evaluation results, that is, SG and CG children presented similar scores regarding assertiveness, aggressiveness and passiveness. Consequently, there was no difference on the subscales of the inventory regarding social skills. As for the SG, there was no relationship between the scores obtained on the MUSSIC and the severity of the voice disorder. It is not possible to determine specific behaviors of dysphonic children concerning social skills.

Teaching Social Skills to Adults with Intellectual Disabilities: A Comparison of External Control and Problem-Solving Interventions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Reilly, Mark F.; Lancioni, Giulio E.; Sigafoos, Jeff; O'Donoghue, Deirdre; Lacey, Claire; Edrisinha, Chaturi

2004-01-01

We compared the effectiveness of a problem-solving and an external control intervention to teach social skills to five adults with mild intellectual disabilities. The social skills of ''responding to corrective feedback'' and ''managing conflict'' were targeted for intervention. Each participant received the problem-solving intervention with one…

Social Emotional Learning Skills and Educational Stress

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Çelik, Ismail

2013-01-01

The basic aim of this research is to examine the predicting role of social emotional learning skills in educational stress. The participants were 238 adolescents at high school. In this study, the Social Emotional Learning Skills Scale and the Educational Stress Scale were used. The relationships between social emotional learning skills and…

Social Skills and Social Values Training for Future K-Workers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sail, Rahim M.; Alavi, Khadijah

2010-01-01

Purpose: The main purpose of this paper is to determine the extent of acquisition of knowledge on social skills and social values by trainers of institutes and coaches of industries in training of trainers (ToT) programmes. It has been ascertained that social skills and social values can and must be taught to apprentices to enhance their…

Brief Report: Parent-Adolescent Informant Discrepancies of Social Skill Importance and Social Skill Engagement for Higher-Functioning Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McMahon, Camilla M.; Solomon, Marjorie

2015-01-01

Parent- and adolescent-report of social skill importance and social skill engagement on the Social Skills Rating System (Gresham and Elliott in The social skills rating system, American Guidance Service, Circle Pines, 1990) were assessed in higher-functioning adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Compared to parents, adolescents…

Randomized comparative trial of a social cognitive skills group for children with autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Soorya, Latha V; Siper, Paige M; Beck, Todd; Soffes, Sarah; Halpern, Danielle; Gorenstein, Michelle; Kolevzon, Alexander; Buxbaum, Joseph; Wang, A Ting

2015-03-01

This study evaluated the efficacy of a targeted social skills training group in school-aged children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The intervention, Seaver-NETT (Nonverbal communication, Emotion recognition, and Theory of mind Training), is a 12-session cognitive-behavioral intervention (CBI) for verbal, school-aged children targeting ASD-specific social behavioral impairments. Sixty-nine children with ASD, 8 to 11 years of age, with verbal IQs greater than 70, participated in a randomized comparative trial to examine the efficacy of NETT relative to a facilitated play group. Treatment outcomes included caregiver reports of social behavior and neuropsychological assessments of social cognition conducted by blinded raters. Outcomes were collected at baseline, endpoint, and 3 months posttreatment. Significant improvements were found on social behavior outcomes such as nonverbal communication, empathic responding, and social relations in the NETT condition relative to the active control at endpoint. Verbal IQ moderated the interaction effect on social behavior, with higher verbal IQ associated with improvements in the CBI condition. No significant improvements were found on social cognitive outcomes. No significant group differences were found at 3-month follow-up conducted with approximately half the sample (n = 34). These data indicate that targeted CBI social skills groups such as NETT improve social communication deficits in verbal, school-aged children with ASD. The moderating effects of high verbal IQ suggest a need to consider participant and treatment characteristics associated with outcomes in future studies. Clinical trial registration information-Neural and Behavioral Outcomes of Social Skills Groups in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder; https://clinicaltrials.gov; NCT01190917. Copyright © 2015 American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Clinic-Based Assessment for Evaluating Job-Related Social Skills in Adolescents and Adults with Autism.

PubMed

Lerman, Dorothea C; White, Bridgette; Grob, Carolyn; Laudont, Courtney

2017-12-01

Many individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulties obtaining and maintaining employment, yet little research has evaluated methods for assessing and improving critical vocational skills. In this study, we evaluated an assessment of job-related social skills for individuals with ASD by arranging conditions that simulated on-the-job experiences in a clinic setting. The experimenter contrived situations to assess a variety of social skills, including asking for help, asking for more materials, and responding to corrective feedback. A total of eight individuals, aged 16 to 32 years, participated. Results suggested that the assessment was useful for identifying specific social skills that could be targeted for intervention to increase success in the work environment. These findings add to the current literature by demonstrating an objective method for assessing a variety of job-related social skills under controlled, naturalistic conditions.

Social disinterest attitudes and group cognitive-behavioral social skills training for functional disability in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Granholm, Eric; Ben-Zeev, Dror; Link, Peter C

2009-09-01

The majority of clinical trials of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for schizophrenia have used individual therapy to target positive symptoms. Promising results have been found, however, for group CBT interventions and other treatment targets like psychosocial functioning. CBT for functioning in schizophrenia is based on a cognitive model of functional outcome in schizophrenia that incorporates dysfunctional attitudes (eg, social disinterest, defeatist performance beliefs) as mediators between neurocognitive impairment and functional outcome. In this report, 18 clinical trials of CBT for schizophrenia that included measures of psychosocial functioning were reviewed, and two-thirds showed improvements in functioning in CBT. The cognitive model of functional outcome was also tested by examining the relationship between social disinterest attitudes and functional outcome in 79 people with schizophrenia randomized to either group cognitive-behavioral social skills training or a goal-focused supportive contact intervention. Consistent with the cognitive model, lower social disinterest attitudes at baseline and greater reduction in social disinterest during group therapy predicted better functional outcome at end of treatment for both groups. However, the groups did not differ significantly with regard to overall change in social disinterest attitudes during treatment, suggesting that nonspecific social interactions during group therapy can lead to changes in social disinterest, regardless of whether these attitudes are directly targeted by cognitive therapy interventions.

The Effects of Social Skills Groups for Young Children with Social Delays

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koyama, Takanori

2011-01-01

This study was conducted as a program evaluation of an existing social skills program. A review of literature identified a limited number of empirical studies on group-based social skills training for young children with social delays. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of social skills groups as well as the effects of homework…

Teaching social perception skills to adolescents with autism and intellectual disabilities using video-based group instruction.

PubMed

Stauch, Tiffany A; Plavnick, Joshua B; Sankar, Sudha; Gallagher, Annie C

2018-05-17

Few interventions focus on teaching social skills to adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disabilities (ID) that are consistently used during interactions with peers ( Carter et al., 2014). The present study evaluated the effects of video-based group instruction (VGI) on the acquisition of social perception skills of five adolescents with ASD or ID in a public school setting. Social perception involves observing affective behaviors of others, discriminating relevant environmental stimuli, and differentially reinforcing the affective behavior of another person. Typically developing peers supported VGI implementation as social partners for participants. A multiple probe design across behaviors demonstrated the effectiveness of VGI for teaching social perception skills. Four of five participants acquired and maintained the targeted social perception skills, and we observed some transfer to a nontreatment setting. Results of this study suggest VGI may support the acquisition of social perception among adolescents with ASD or ID. © 2018 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

The Social Studies Basic Skills Connection: Practical Strategies for Teaching Basic Skills in Conjunction with Social Studies Content.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Missouri State Dept. of Education, Jefferson City.

Arranged in two parts, this guide introduces elementary and secondary social studies teachers to a variety of methods for integrating social studies content and basic skills instruction. Chapter I defines basic skills as the skills an individual needs to become a self-directed learner, communicate clearly, and make reasoned decisions, and presents…

Training social skills to severely mentally retarded multiply handicapped adolescents.

PubMed

Matson, J L; Manikam, R; Coe, D; Raymond, K; Taras, M; Long, N

1988-01-01

Three severely mentally retarded, multiply handicapped, adolescents were treated in a classroom setting for social skills deficits. Two of these children exhibited symptoms of autism including periods of echolalia, and fascination with tactile and visual stimulation. One of the pair was deaf. The third child was profoundly mentally retarded and had minimal expressive language skills. All had received sign language training to facilitate communication. Treatment focused on increasing the frequency of eye contact, in seat and response to verbal prompt behaviors, skills deemed necessary to facilitate use of sign language communication and to increase social interaction. Baseline and treatment were evaluated in a multiple baseline, alternating treatment design across children. Baseline was taken on responses to 10 standard questions, asked by the teacher, based on verbal presentation and sign language. This same procedure was then continued during the initial treatment phase following training sessions. During training, the children received social reinforcement, performance feedback and edible reinforcement, in the form of candy, for appropriate performance. Physical and verbal prompts as well as pictorial cues were employed to shape appropriate behavior. In the second treatment phase, training was implemented in the classroom in which baseline data had been collected. Improvement in target behaviors, via training sessions held four days a week, was noted. These data suggest that use of a combination of visual stimuli, operant and social learning methods can remediate social skills deficits in children with multiple psychological and physical deficits. The implications of these findings for current and future research are discussed.

The Effect of the Values Education Programme on 5.5-6 Year Old Children's Social Development: Social Skills, Psycho-Social Development and Social Problem Solving Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dereli-Iman, Esra

2014-01-01

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of the Values Education Programme (developed for pre-school children) on the children's social skills, psycho-social development, and social problem solving skills. The sample group consisted of 66 children (33 experimental group, 33 control group) attending pre-school. The Values Education Programme…

Defining behavioral components of social functioning in adults with autism spectrum disorder as targets for treatment.

PubMed

Pallathra, Ashley A; Calkins, Monica E; Parish-Morris, Julia; Maddox, Brenna B; Perez, Leat S; Miller, Judith; Gur, Ruben C; Mandell, David S; Schultz, Robert T; Brodkin, Edward S

2018-03-01

There is increasing recognition that adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) would benefit from treatment to improve social functioning, a key factor in adults' overall quality of life. However, the various behavioral components of social functioning (i.e., categories of behaviors underlying social functioning), including social motivation, social anxiety, social cognition, and social skills, have not all been assessed together in any sample of adults with ASD, making it difficult to know the relative levels of impairment in these various categories, the relationships among these categories, or promising targets for treatments. We hypothesized there would be significant correlations among measures within the same category, but fewer correlations of measures between categories, indicating the heterogeneity of impairments in adults with ASD. Twenty-nine adults with ASD without co-occurring intellectual disability completed multiple assessments measuring social motivation, social anxiety, social cognition, and social skills, as well as measures of overall ASD symptom levels and community functioning. Results revealed significant positive correlations among measures within most categories; positive correlations between measures of social motivation and all other categories, except for social cognition; as well as positive cross-domain correlations between measures of anxiety and ASD phenotype; measures of social skills and community functioning; and measures of social skills and ASD phenotype. Further studies are warranted to determine causal relationships among these behavioral categories, across developmental stages. However, the lack of correlations between many categories suggests the potential importance of multidimensional treatments that target the particular components of social functioning most in need of improvement in individuals. Autism Res 2018, 11: 488-502. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. The goal of this

Responsive parenting: establishing early foundations for social, communication, and independent problem-solving skills.

PubMed

Landry, Susan H; Smith, Karen E; Swank, Paul R

2006-07-01

Mothers whose infants varied in early biological characteristics (born at term, n = 120; born at very low birth weight [VLBW], n = 144) were randomized to a target group (n = 133) or developmental feedback comparison group (n = 131) to determine whether learning responsive behaviors would facilitate infant development. The target condition included videotaped examples, problem-solving activities, and mothers' critique of their own behaviors through video procedures across 10 home visits. All target versus comparison mothers showed greater increases across multiple responsiveness behaviors observed in 4 assessments conducted across 6-13 months of age; changes in emotionally supportive behaviors were strongest for target mothers of infants born at VLBW. Increased maternal responsiveness facilitated greater growth in target infants' social, emotional, communication, and cognitive competence, supporting a causal role for responsiveness on infant development. Although benefits were generally comparable across risk groups, aspects of social and emotional skills showed greater change for those born at VLBW. Evidence for responsiveness as a multidimensional construct was provided as well as the importance of different aspects of responsiveness mediating the effect of the intervention on different infant skill domains.

The Role of Cognitive Factors in Childhood Social Anxiety: Social Threat Thoughts and Social Skills Perception.

PubMed

van Niekerk, Rianne E; Klein, Anke M; Allart-van Dam, Esther; Hudson, Jennifer L; Rinck, Mike; Hutschemaekers, Giel J M; Becker, Eni S

2017-01-01

Models of cognitive processing in anxiety disorders state that socially anxious children display several distorted cognitive processes that maintain their anxiety. The present study investigated the role of social threat thoughts and social skills perception in relation to childhood trait and state social anxiety. In total, 141 children varying in their levels of social anxiety performed a short speech task in front of a camera and filled out self-reports about their trait social anxiety, state anxiety, social skills perception and social threat thoughts. Results showed that social threat thoughts mediated the relationship between trait social anxiety and state anxiety after the speech task, even when controlling for baseline state anxiety. Furthermore, we found that children with higher trait anxiety and more social threat thoughts had a lower perception of their social skills, but did not display a social skills deficit. These results provide evidence for the applicability of the cognitive social anxiety model to children.

The Effect of Communication Skills and Interpersonal Problem Solving Skills on Social Self-Efficacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Erozkan, Atilgan

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine communication skills, interpersonal problem solving skills, and social self-efficacy perception of adolescents and the predictive role of communication skills and interpersonal problem solving skills on social self-efficacy. This study is a quantitative and relational study aimed at examining the…

Validation of social skills of adolescent males in an interview conversation with a previously unknown adult.

PubMed

Spence, S H

1981-01-01

Seventy convicted young male offenders were videotaped during a 5-min standardized interview with a previously unknown adult. In order to determine the social validity of the behavioral components of social interaction for this population, measures of 13 behaviors were obtained from the tapes. These measures were then correlated with ratings of friendliness, social anxiety, social skills performance, and employability made by four independent adult judges from the same tapes. It was found that measures of eye contact and verbal initiations were correlated significantly with all four criterion rating scales. The frequencies of smiling and speech dysfluencies were both significantly correlated with ratings of friendliness and employability. The amount spoken was found to be a significant predictor of social skills performance whereas the frequency of head movements influenced judgments of social anxiety. The latency of response was negatively correlated with social skills and employability ratings and the frequency of question-asking and interruptions correlated significantly with friendliness, social skills, and employability ratings. Finally, the levels of gestures, gross body movements, and attention feedback responses were not found to influence judgments on any of the criterion scales. The implications of the study for selection of targets for social skills training for adolescent male offenders are discussed.

Validation of social skills of adolescent males in an interview conversation with a previously unknown adult.

PubMed Central

Spence, S H

1981-01-01

Seventy convicted young male offenders were videotaped during a 5-min standardized interview with a previously unknown adult. In order to determine the social validity of the behavioral components of social interaction for this population, measures of 13 behaviors were obtained from the tapes. These measures were then correlated with ratings of friendliness, social anxiety, social skills performance, and employability made by four independent adult judges from the same tapes. It was found that measures of eye contact and verbal initiations were correlated significantly with all four criterion rating scales. The frequencies of smiling and speech dysfluencies were both significantly correlated with ratings of friendliness and employability. The amount spoken was found to be a significant predictor of social skills performance whereas the frequency of head movements influenced judgments of social anxiety. The latency of response was negatively correlated with social skills and employability ratings and the frequency of question-asking and interruptions correlated significantly with friendliness, social skills, and employability ratings. Finally, the levels of gestures, gross body movements, and attention feedback responses were not found to influence judgments on any of the criterion scales. The implications of the study for selection of targets for social skills training for adolescent male offenders are discussed. PMID:7287599

Examining the Effectiveness of Naturalistic Social Skills Training in Developing Social Skills and Theory of Mind in Preschoolers with ASD.

PubMed

Szumski, Grzegorz; Smogorzewska, Joanna; Grygiel, Paweł; Orlando, Ann-Marie

2017-11-20

We compared the effectiveness of two programs for developing social skills, 'Play Time/Social Time' (PT/ST) and 'I Can Problem Solve' (ICPS), in improving the social skills and theory of mind (ToM) of preschoolers with ASD. The experiment took place in a classroom setting. Fifty-two children attended and data were analyzed with latent growth curve models. Comparison with a control group indicated that both programs were effective in developing social skills. The PT/ST program was more effective than ICPS in developing interaction skills; both programs improved children's ability to cope with difficult social situations. The ICPS program was marginally effective in developing ToM when compared with PT/ST and control condition. These results are relevant to children with ASD and their teachers.

Teaching Social Skills: An Effective Online Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sanchez, Rebecca P.; Brown, Emily; DeRosier, Melissa E.

2015-01-01

Educators, policymakers, and the general public agree that social skills should be taught to children. In an effort to bridge this gap between evidence-based social skills training and populations in need, the authors have developed an Intelligent Social Tutoring System (ISTS) that fosters learning through adaptive interaction between the student…

Social and Emotional Smarts: Key Skills.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Our Children, 1999

1999-01-01

Describes several skills that educators and parents should promote in children and teens entrusted to their care. The skills include self-awareness, self-regulation of emotion, self-monitoring and performance, empathy and perspective taking, and social skills in handling relationships. (SM)

Randomized Comparative Trial of a Social Cognitive Skills Group for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

PubMed Central

Soorya, Latha V.; Weinger, Paige M.; Beck, Todd; Soffes, Sarah; Halpern, Danielle; Gorenstein, Michelle; Kolevzon, Alexander; Buxbaum, Joseph; Wang, A. Ting

2015-01-01

Objective This study evaluated the efficacy of a targeted social skills training group in school-aged children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The intervention, NETT (Nonverbal communication, Emotion recognition, and Theory of mind Training), is a 12-session cognitive-behavioral intervention (CBI) for verbal, school-aged children targeting ASD-specific social behavioral impairments. Method Sixty-nine children with ASD, 8 to 11 years of age with verbal IQs greater than 70, participated in a randomized comparative trial to examine the efficacy of NETT relative to a facilitated play group. Treatment outcomes included caregiver reports of social behavior and neuropsychological assessments of social cognition conducted by blinded raters. Outcomes were collected at baseline, endpoint, and three months posttreatment. Results Significant improvements were found on social behavior outcomes such as nonverbal communication, empathic responding, and social relations in the NETT condition relative to the active control at endpoint. Verbal IQ and age moderated the interaction effect on social behavior with higher verbal IQ and older age associated with improvements in the CBI condition. No significant improvements were found on social cognitive outcomes. No significant group differences were found at three-month follow-up conducted with approximately half the sample (n=34). Conclusion These data indicate that targeted CBI social skills groups such as NETT improve social communication deficits in verbal, school-aged children with ASD. The moderating effects of high verbal IQ suggest a need to consider participant and treatment characteristics associated with outcomes in future studies. PMID:25721186

Work-related social skills: Definitions and interventions in public vocational rehabilitation.

PubMed

Phillips, Brian N; Kaseroff, Ashley A; Fleming, Allison R; Huck, Garrett E

2014-11-01

Social skills play an important role in employment. This study provides a qualitative analysis of salient work related social skills and interventions for addressing social skills in public vocational rehabilitation (VR). A modified consensual qualitative research (CQR) approach was taken to understand the elements and influence of work related social skills in public VR. Thirty-five counselors, supervisors, and administrators participated in semistructured interviews to provide their perspectives of work related social skills and the interventions they use for addressing these skills. Multiple aspects of work-related social skills were described as being important for VR consumer success. The most common work related social skills across all participants were nonverbal communication and the ability to connect with others. Primary social interventions included informal social skills training (SST), systems collaboration, and creating an appropriate job match. Public rehabilitation agency staff, constantly faced with addressing work related social skills, possess many insights about salient skills and interventions that can benefit future research and practice. Agencies currently address social skills deficits by providing interventions to both person and environment. The research provides directions for future research related to identification of social skills and interventions to address related deficits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

Social Skills Training with Mildly Retarded Young Adults.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meredith, R. L.; And Others

1980-01-01

Group behavioral social skills training was more effective than the control condition in increasing positive social behavior, attention to the transaction, and degree of empathy. It was also more effective in decreasing negative social skill behavior. (Author)

Predicting maternal parenting stress in middle childhood: the roles of child intellectual status, behaviour problems and social skills.

PubMed

Neece, C; Baker, B

2008-12-01

Parents of children with intellectual disabilities (ID) typically report elevated levels of parenting stress, and child behaviour problems are a strong predictor of heightened parenting stress. Interestingly, few studies have examined child characteristics beyond behaviour problems that may also contribute to parenting stress. The present longitudinal study examined the contribution of child social skills to maternal parenting stress across middle childhood, as well as the direction of the relationship between child social skills and parenting stress. Families of children with ID (n = 74) or typical development (TD) (n = 115) participated over a 2-year period. Maternal parenting stress, child behaviour problems and child social skills were assessed at child ages six and eight. Child social skills accounted for unique variance in maternal parenting stress above and beyond child intellectual status and child behaviour problems. As the children matured, there was a significant interaction between child social skills and behaviour problems in predicting parenting stress. With respect to the direction of these effects, a cross-lagged panel analysis indicated that early parenting stress contributed to later social skills difficulties for children, but the path from children's early social skills to later parenting stress was not supported, once child behaviour problems and intellectual status were accounted for. When examining parenting stress, child social skills are an important variable to consider, especially in the context of child behaviour problems. Early parenting stress predicted child social skills difficulties over time, highlighting parenting stress as a key target for intervention.

Brief Report: Suitability of the Social Skills Performance Assessment (SSPA) for the Assessment of Social Skills in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Verhoeven, E. W. M.; Smeekens, I.; Didden, R.

2013-01-01

The present study aims at examining whether the "Social Skills Performance Assessment" (SSPA; Patterson et al. in "Schizophr Res" 48(2-3):351-360, 2001) is a suitable performance-based measure to assess social skills in adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). For this purpose, social skills of individuals with ASD and…

Social skills deficits and their association with Internet addiction and activities in adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

PubMed

Chou, Wen-Jiun; Huang, Mei-Feng; Chang, Yu-Ping; Chen, Yu-Min; Hu, Huei-Fan; Yen, Cheng-Fang

2017-03-01

Background and aims The aims of this study were to examine the association between social skills deficits and Internet addiction and activities in adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as well as the moderators for this association. Methods A total of 300 adolescents, aged between 11 and 18 years, who had been diagnosed with ADHD participated in this study. Their Internet addiction levels, social skills deficits, ADHD, parental characteristics, and comorbidities were assessed. The various Internet activities that the participants engaged in were also examined. Results The associations between social skills deficits and Internet addiction and activities and the moderators of these associations were examined using logistic regression analyses. Social skills deficits were significantly associated with an increased risk of Internet addiction after adjustment for the effects of other factors [odds ratio (OR) = 1.049, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.030-1.070]. Social skills deficits were also significantly associated with Internet gaming and watching movies. The maternal occupational socioeconomic levels of the participants moderated the association between social skills deficits and Internet addiction. Conclusions Social skills deficits should be considered targets in prevention and intervention programs for treating Internet addiction among adolescents with ADHD.

Social skills deficits and their association with Internet addiction and activities in adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

PubMed Central

Chou, Wen-Jiun; Huang, Mei-Feng; Chang, Yu-Ping; Chen, Yu-Min; Hu, Huei-Fan; Yen, Cheng-Fang

2017-01-01

Background and aims The aims of this study were to examine the association between social skills deficits and Internet addiction and activities in adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as well as the moderators for this association. Methods A total of 300 adolescents, aged between 11 and 18 years, who had been diagnosed with ADHD participated in this study. Their Internet addiction levels, social skills deficits, ADHD, parental characteristics, and comorbidities were assessed. The various Internet activities that the participants engaged in were also examined. Results The associations between social skills deficits and Internet addiction and activities and the moderators of these associations were examined using logistic regression analyses. Social skills deficits were significantly associated with an increased risk of Internet addiction after adjustment for the effects of other factors [odds ratio (OR) = 1.049, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.030–1.070]. Social skills deficits were also significantly associated with Internet gaming and watching movies. The maternal occupational socioeconomic levels of the participants moderated the association between social skills deficits and Internet addiction. Conclusions Social skills deficits should be considered targets in prevention and intervention programs for treating Internet addiction among adolescents with ADHD. PMID:28245666

Use of the "Intervention Selection Profile-Social Skills" to Identify Social Skill Acquisition Deficits: A Preliminary Validation Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kilgus, Stephen P.; von der Embse, Nathaniel P.; Scott, Katherine; Paxton, Sara

2015-01-01

The purpose of this investigation was to develop and initially validate the "Intervention Selection Profile-Social Skills" (ISP-SS), a novel brief social skills assessment method intended for use at Tier 2. Participants included 54 elementary school teachers and their 243 randomly selected students. Teachers rated students on two rating…

The relationship of motor skills and social communicative skills in school-aged children with autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

MacDonald, Megan; Lord, Catherine; Ulrich, Dale A

2013-07-01

Motor skill deficits are present and persist in school-aged children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; Staples & Reid, 2010). Yet the focus of intervention is on core impairments, which are part of the diagnostic criteria for ASD, deficits in social communication skills. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the functional motor skills, of 6- to 15-year-old children with high-functioning ASD, predict success in standardized social communicative skills. It is hypothesized that children with better motor skills will have better social communicative skills. A total of 35 children with ASD between the ages of 6-15 years participated in this study. The univariate GLM (general linear model) tested the relationship of motor skills on social communicative skills holding constant age, IQ, ethnicity, gender, and clinical ASD diagnosis. Object-control motor skills significantly predicted calibrated ASD severity (p < .05). Children with weaker motor skills have greater social communicative skill deficits. How this relationship exists behaviorally, needs to be explored further.

The social play, social skills and parent-child relationships of children with ADHD 12 months following a RCT of a play-based intervention.

PubMed

Barnes, Gabrielle; Wilkes-Gillan, Sarah; Bundy, Anita; Cordier, Reinie

2017-12-01

There is an urgent need to investigate the long-term impact of social skill interventions for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Interventions targeting the social skills of children with ADHD have limited short-term effectiveness and rarely investigate the long-term impact. Furthermore, these interventions are most frequently conducted in the clinic setting, without including the child's natural settings and interactants, such as their regular playmates and parents. The present study investigated the social play, social skills and parent-child relationships of children with ADHD and their playmates (n = 13/group) aged 5-13 years. A two-group before and after design with a longitudinal component was applied. Participant data compared over two time points, immediately following a randomised, controlled trial (RCT) of a play-based intervention and 12 months post-RCT. From immediately following the RCT to the 12-month follow-up, children with ADHD maintained social play skill gains in the home environment. Playmates maintained social play skill gains across the home and clinic environments. Children scored within a developmentally appropriate range, falling within 1 standard deviation of the mean for social skills and most parent-child relationship scales using norm-based assessments. Results support the long-term effectiveness of the intervention. © 2017 Occupational Therapy Australia.

Culturally Responsive Social Skill Instruction for Latino Male Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lo, Ya-yu; Correa, Vivian I.; Anderson, Adrienne L.

2015-01-01

Cross-cultural friendships and peer interactions are important skills for Latino students to become socially adjusted in U.S. schools. Culturally responsive social skill instruction allows educators to teach essential social skills while attending to the native culture and personal experiences of the students. The present study examined the…

Life Skills Training: Preventing Substance Misuse by Enhancing Individual and Social Competence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Botvin, Gilbert J.; Griffin, Kenneth W.

2014-01-01

Research concerning the etiology and prevention of substance misuse has led to the development of preventive interventions that are theory-based and effective. One such approach, Life Skills Training (LST), targets key etiologic factors using a conceptual framework derived from social learning theory and problem behavior theory. LST has been…

Validation of the Peer Social Maturity Scale for Assessing Children's Social Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fink, Elian; de Rosnay, Marc; Peterson, Candida; Slaughter, Virginia

2013-01-01

We evaluated the utility of a brief, seven-item, teacher-rated Peer Social Maturity Scale (PSMAT). In Study 1, teachers of 138 Australian children (ranging from 5 to 8?years and 5?months old) in kindergarten and Grades 1 and 2 rated their pupils' social maturity using the PSMAT and their classroom social skills via the Social Skills Rating System…

Predicting maternal parenting stress in middle childhood: the roles of child intellectual status, behaviour problems and social skills

PubMed Central

Neece, C.; Baker, B.

2009-01-01

Background Parents of children with intellectual disabilities (ID) typically report elevated levels of parenting stress, and child behaviour problems are a strong predictor of heightened parenting stress. Interestingly, few studies have examined child characteristics beyond behaviour problems that may also contribute to parenting stress. The present longitudinal study examined the contribution of child social skills to maternal parenting stress across middle childhood, as well as the direction of the relationship between child social skills and parenting stress. Method Families of children with ID (n = 74) or typical development (TD) (n = 115) participated over a 2-year period. Maternal parenting stress, child behaviour problems and child social skills were assessed at child ages six and eight. Results Child social skills accounted for unique variance in maternal parenting stress above and beyond child intellectual status and child behaviour problems. As the children matured, there was a significant interaction between child social skills and behaviour problems in predicting parenting stress. With respect to the direction of these effects, a cross-lagged panel analysis indicated that early parenting stress contributed to later social skills difficulties for children, but the path from children’s early social skills to later parenting stress was not supported, once child behaviour problems and intellectual status were accounted for. Conclusion When examining parenting stress, child social skills are an important variable to consider, especially in the context of child behaviour problems. Early parenting stress predicted child social skills difficulties over time, highlighting parenting stress as a key target for intervention. PMID:18513339

Improving Student Social Skills in Structured and Unstructured Situations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Finzer, Sharon; Green, Patricia; Mizen, Julie; Sennstrom, Sandra

This action research project involved the implementation and evaluation of a program to increase use of appropriate social skills among third-grade students. The problem of inadequate social skills was documented by means of teacher observations and notice of misbehavior forms. Probable causes for students' lack of social skills were concluded to…

Incorporating Skills into Social Studies Programs, K-12.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gregory, George, Ed.

Designed to assist schools in implementing developmental skills in the social studies programs for grades K-12, this guide is divided into seven sections. The first section, a literature review, cites publications on social studies skills. Section 2 gives an interdisciplinary view of shared skills in the New York state curriculum. Three skill…

Social communication skills of chiropractors: implications for professional practice.

PubMed

Marchiori, Dennis M; Henkin, Alan B; Hawk, Cheryl

2008-01-01

Social communication skills are critical in the health professions. The aim of this study was to measure and identify professional practice predictors of social communication skills of practicing chiropractors. The study population was derived from a group of doctors of chiropractic who participated in a practice-based research program. Participating chiropractors agreed to complete a survey detailing the chiropractor's sex, years in practice, practice type, size of the practice community, typical weekly practice volume, and an instrument to measure skills of social communication. Regression analysis was applied to identify associations between independent variables and responses to the social skills instrument. Results suggested that selected characteristics of clinical practice may be associated with clinician's social skills of communication. The weekly volume of patients to the practice emerged as a salient explanatory factor of overall social communication skills and as a factor individually for dimensions of social expressivity and social control. The practice arrangement (solo vs group) proved important in terms of respondent emotional control scores. Similarly, the solo vs group practice variable was associated with higher levels of emotional sensitivity; however, this association was mediated by the sex of the doctor of chiropractic; men reported lower levels of emotional sensitivity than women. The findings of this study suggest associations between dimensions of social communication skills, practice characteristics, practice arrangements, and sex that may inform the efforts of educators as they endeavor to better prepare health professionals for practice in a wide spectrum of settings.

A Trial of an iPad™ Intervention Targeting Social Communication Skills in Children with Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fletcher-Watson, Sue; Petrou, Alexandra; Scott-Barrett, Juliet; Dicks, Pamela; Graham, Catherine; O'Hare, Anne; Pain, Helen; McConachie, Helen

2016-01-01

This study evaluated a technology-based early intervention for social communication skills in pre-schoolers in a randomised controlled trial. Participants were 54 children aged under 6 years with a diagnosis of autism, assigned to either intervention or control conditions. The app engaged children, who played consistently, regardless of…

Targeted Social Mobilization in a Global Manhunt

PubMed Central

Dsouza, Sohan; McInerney, James; Naroditskiy, Victor; Venanzi, Matteo; Jennings, Nicholas R.; deLara, J. R.; Wahlstedt, Eero; Miller, Steven U.

2013-01-01

Social mobilization, the ability to mobilize large numbers of people via social networks to achieve highly distributed tasks, has received significant attention in recent times. This growing capability, facilitated by modern communication technology, is highly relevant to endeavors which require the search for individuals that possess rare information or skills, such as finding medical doctors during disasters, or searching for missing people. An open question remains, as to whether in time-critical situations, people are able to recruit in a targeted manner, or whether they resort to so-called blind search, recruiting as many acquaintances as possible via broadcast communication. To explore this question, we examine data from our recent success in the U.S. State Department's Tag Challenge, which required locating and photographing 5 target persons in 5 different cities in the United States and Europe – in under 12 hours – based only on a single mug-shot. We find that people are able to consistently route information in a targeted fashion even under increasing time pressure. We derive an analytical model for social-media fueled global mobilization and use it to quantify the extent to which people were targeting their peers during recruitment. Our model estimates that approximately 1 in 3 messages were of targeted fashion during the most time-sensitive period of the challenge. This is a novel observation at such short temporal scales, and calls for opportunities for devising viral incentive schemes that provide distance or time-sensitive rewards to approach the target geography more rapidly. This observation of ′12 hours of separation' between individuals has applications in multiple areas from emergency preparedness, to political mobilization. PMID:24098660

Targeted social mobilization in a global manhunt.

PubMed

Rutherford, Alex; Cebrian, Manuel; Rahwan, Iyad; Dsouza, Sohan; McInerney, James; Naroditskiy, Victor; Venanzi, Matteo; Jennings, Nicholas R; deLara, J R; Wahlstedt, Eero; Miller, Steven U

2013-01-01

Social mobilization, the ability to mobilize large numbers of people via social networks to achieve highly distributed tasks, has received significant attention in recent times. This growing capability, facilitated by modern communication technology, is highly relevant to endeavors which require the search for individuals that possess rare information or skills, such as finding medical doctors during disasters, or searching for missing people. An open question remains, as to whether in time-critical situations, people are able to recruit in a targeted manner, or whether they resort to so-called blind search, recruiting as many acquaintances as possible via broadcast communication. To explore this question, we examine data from our recent success in the U.S. State Department's Tag Challenge, which required locating and photographing 5 target persons in 5 different cities in the United States and Europe - in under 12 hours - based only on a single mug-shot. We find that people are able to consistently route information in a targeted fashion even under increasing time pressure. We derive an analytical model for social-media fueled global mobilization and use it to quantify the extent to which people were targeting their peers during recruitment. Our model estimates that approximately 1 in 3 messages were of targeted fashion during the most time-sensitive period of the challenge. This is a novel observation at such short temporal scales, and calls for opportunities for devising viral incentive schemes that provide distance or time-sensitive rewards to approach the target geography more rapidly. This observation of '12 hours of separation' between individuals has applications in multiple areas from emergency preparedness, to political mobilization.

The Use of Technology in Enhancing Social Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Singer-Califano, Autumn

2008-01-01

Social skills training programs are frequently used with students who are at risk for or who have emotional and behavioral disorders. These students often experience social skills deficiencies, antisocial behavior, and negative peer relationships. Because the media is an important factor in the socialization and interaction of students, there…

A Brief Social Skills Intervention to Reduce Challenging Classroom Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDaniel, Sara C.; Bruhn, Allison L.; Troughton, Leonard

2017-01-01

Social skills instruction has been recommended as a way of improving behavioral and social outcomes for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). A brief social skills intervention ("Stop and Think" (Knoff in "The stop & think social skills program," Sopris West, Longmont, CO, 2001) was used to extend the…

Social skills and psychopathic traits in maltreated adolescents.

PubMed

Ometto, Mariella; de Oliveira, Paula Approbato; Milioni, Ana Luiza; Dos Santos, Bernardo; Scivoletto, Sandra; Busatto, Geraldo F; Nunes, Paula V; Cunha, Paulo Jannuzzi

2016-04-01

Child maltreatment has frequently been associated with impaired social skills and antisocial features, but there are still controversies about the effect of each type of maltreatment on social behaviour. The aim of this study was to compare the social functioning and psychopathic traits of maltreated adolescents (MTA) with a control group (CG) and to investigate what types of maltreatments and social skills were associated with psychopathic traits in both groups. The types and intensity of maltreatment were evaluated through the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) in 107 adolescents, divided into the MTA group (n = 66) and non-maltreated youths (n = 41), our CG. The Hare Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL: YV) and a detailed inventory for evaluation of social skills in adolescents were also applied in all individuals. MTA presented more psychopathic traits than the CG, in all domains measured by PCL: YV, independently of IQ levels and the presence of psychiatric disorders. Interestingly, the groups did not differ significantly from each other on indicators of social skills. Multiple regression analysis revealed that emotional neglect was the only maltreatment subtype significantly associated with psychopathic traits, more specifically with the PCL: YV interpersonal factor (F1), and that some social skills (empathy, self-control and social confidence) were related to specific psychopathic factors. The results highlight that emotional neglect may be more detrimental to social behaviours than physical and sexual abuse, and that neglected children require more specific and careful attention.

Emotion Discourse, Social Cognition, and Social Skills in Children with and without Developmental Delays

PubMed Central

Fenning, RM; Baker, BL; Juvonen, J

2009-01-01

This study examined parent-child emotion discourse, children’s independent social information processing, and social skills outcomes in 146 families of 8-year-olds with and without developmental delays. Children’s emergent social-cognitive understanding (internal state understanding, perspective taking, and causal reasoning/problem solving) was coded in the context of parent-child conversations about emotion, and children were interviewed separately to assess social problem solving. Mothers, fathers, and teachers reported on children’s social skills. The proposed strengths-based model partially accounted for social skills differences between typically developing children and children with delays. A multigroup analysis of the model linking emotion discourse to social skills through children’s prosocial problem solving suggested that processes operated similarly across the two groups. Implications for ecologically focused prevention and intervention are discussed. PMID:21410465

Social Studies Skills or Something Else? An Analysis of How the "Essential Social Studies Skills and Strategies" Reflects Social Studies Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brugar, Kristy A.; Whitlock, Annie McMahon

2018-01-01

This article describes the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) collection of "Essential Social Studies Skills and Strategies" in terms of common approaches to social studies teaching and learning (e.g., informed social criticism, reflective inquiry, transmission). We conducted descriptive and inferential analyses and found…

[The formation of social professional skills of students with limited possibilities].

PubMed

Bubnova, E V; Guseva, N K

2011-01-01

The education of children and adolescents with limited possibilities is a system of economic, public, legal and individual personal measures supporting the optimal conditions to overcome this defect up to a degree of participation in public life on par with other citizen. In the Nijny Novgorod academic boarding school for the disabled the organization of activities forming the social professional skills are differentiated on terms and targets of education. The students of first course need the optimization of communication, enhancement of self-consciousness, formation of educational information perception, reasoning, involuntary memory voluntary logical memory attention, will, educational general intellectual expertise. The students of second course need more attention to making and optimization of various types of activity, activation of labor activity, forming of labor attitudes, communicative skills and enhancement of emotional and motivational sphere. The students of third course need to develop the skills of self-reliant work, motoric activity, dexterity labor skills, working discipline skills, rational attitude to group work, professional knowledge.

Let's Have Fun! Teaching Social Skills through Stories, Telecommunications, and Activities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Kaili Chen

2011-01-01

This article concerns social skills interventions for children with emotional/behavioral disorders. Drawing on the author's teaching experience and the findings of research on social skills training in schools, and exploring effective ways to facilitate children's social skill development, the paper describes how social skills interventions can be…

Evaluation of a social skills program based on social learning theory, implemented in a school setting.

PubMed

Sheridan, Beth A; MacDonald, Douglas A; Donlon, Mark; Kuhn, Beth; McGovern, Katie; Friedman, Harris

2011-04-01

Using a sample of 647 Canadian children in kindergarten to Grade 3 (325 boys, 322 girls), the present study evaluated the perceived effectiveness of Skillstreaming (McGinnis & Goldstein, 2003), a widely known social skills program implemented to target the development of four skill sets, i.e., listening, following directions, problem-solving, and knowing when to tell. Results indicated significant postprogram improvements in all skills as well as in ratings of overall prosociality obtained from both classroom teachers and mental health staff, with medium to large effect sizes obtained from teachers' and mental health professionals' ratings, respectively. Additional analyses yielded significant but weak moderator effects of grade and preprogram prosocial functioning for teacher ratings but no consistent moderator effects for children's sex or school location (i.e., urban versus rural) regardless of rater.

Emotion discourse, social cognition, and social skills in children with and without developmental delays.

PubMed

Fenning, Rachel M; Baker, Bruce L; Juvonen, Jaana

2011-01-01

This study examined parent-child emotion discourse, children's independent social information processing, and social skills outcomes in 146 families of 8-year-olds with and without developmental delays. Children's emergent social-cognitive understanding (internal state understanding, perspective taking, and causal reasoning and problem solving) was coded in the context of parent-child conversations about emotion, and children were interviewed separately to assess social problem solving. Mothers, fathers, and teachers reported on children's social skills. The proposed strengths-based model partially accounted for social skills differences between typically developing children and children with delays. A multigroup analysis of the model linking emotion discourse to social skills through children's prosocial problem solving suggested that processes operated similarly for the two groups. Implications for ecologically focused prevention and intervention are discussed. © 2011 The Authors. Child Development © 2011 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Teaching Independent Community Social Skills to the Multihandicapped.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beaulac, Pauline F.

Ten multihandicapped high-school students in the Dayton (Ohio) Public Schools were trained using a curriculum of independent community social skills, focusing specifically on restaurant skills, travel skills, shopping skills, self-care skills, and skills for visiting a business or government agency. The students made weekly trips into the…

Using Literature To Teach Social Skills to Adolescents with LD.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, Peggy L.

2000-01-01

Description of the social skill literature strategy (SSLS), an instructional approach that involves integrating social skills intervention into the literature curriculum, focuses on its application using the study of Shakespeare to develop the social skills of secondary students with learning disabilities in an inclusive setting. (Contains…

FACTOR ANALYSIS OF A SOCIAL SKILLS SCALE FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS.

PubMed

Wang, H-Y; Lin, C-K

2015-10-01

The objective of this study was to develop a social skills scale for high school students in Taiwan. This study adopted stratified random sampling. A total of 1,729 high school students were included. The students ranged in age from 16 to 18 years. A Social Skills Scale was developed for this study and was designed for classroom teachers to fill out. The test-retest reliability of this scale was tested by Pearson's correlation coefficient. Exploratory factor analysis was used to determine construct validity. The Social Skills Scale had good overall test-retest reliability of .92, and the internal consistency of the five subscales was above .90. The results of the factor analysis showed that the Social Skills Scale covered the five domains of classroom learning skills, communication skills, individual initiative skills, interaction skills, and job-related social skills, and the five factors explained 68.34% of the variance. Thus, the Social Skills Scale had good reliability and validity and would be applicable to and could be promoted for use in schools.

Indirect Effects of Social Skills on Health Through Stress and Loneliness.

PubMed

Segrin, Chris

2017-10-20

The social skills deficit vulnerability model predicts that people with inadequate social skills are at risk for a range of psychosocial problems, especially when confronted with stress. People with poor social skills often experience stress and loneliness and these two constructs were tested as potential pathways by which the poor social skills confer a risk for compromised mental and physical health. An online survey was completed by 775 adults, aged 18-91. The sample matched national demographics for race/ethnicity and age, among those over 18. Structural equation modeling revealed indirect effects of social skills on both mental and physical health through both stress and loneliness. The models showed that poor social skills were associated with poor mental and physical health through elevated stress and increased loneliness. The findings reveal that social skills deficits are associated with physical as well as mental health problems.

Burnout, anxiety, depression, and social skills in medical residents.

PubMed

Pereira-Lima, K; Loureiro, S R

2015-01-01

The medical residency is recognized as a risk period for the development of burnout and mental health problems, such as anxiety and depression, which have impact on the physician and clientele alike. There is a need for studies that address conditions of risk and protection for the development of such problems. This study aimed to verify the rates of burnout, anxiety, and depression presented by resident physicians, as well as the associations of these problems with social skills, as potential protective factors. The hypothesis was defined that the problems (burnout, anxiety, and depression) would be negatively associated with social skills. A total of 305 medical residents, of both genders, of different specialties, from clinical and surgical areas of a Brazilian university hospital were evaluated using the following standardized self-report instruments: Burnout Syndrome Inventory, Social Skills Inventory, and the Patient Health Questionnaire-4. High rates of burnout and mental health problems were verified and social skills were negatively associated with burnout dimensions such as emotional exhaustion, emotional detachment, and dehumanization, but positively associated with personal accomplishment. Furthermore, residents with indicators of problems presented significantly lower social skills means than those of residents without indicators of burnout, anxiety, or depression. More studies are needed, which include other types of instruments in addition to self-report ones and evaluate not only social skills but also social competence in the professional practice. These should adopt intervention and longitudinal designs that allow the continuity or overcoming of the problems to be verified. Since social skills can be learned, the results of the study highlight the importance of developing the interpersonal skills of the professionals during the training of resident physicians in order to improve their practice.

Educational Interventions Targeted at Minors in Situations of Grave Social Vulnerability and Their Families

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de la Caba Collado, Mariangeles; Rojas, Isabel Bartau

2010-01-01

The aim of this article is to outline and assess an educational intervention programme targeted at improving the skills of families and the personal and social development of children living in situations of grave social vulnerability. The sample comprised 10 families during the first phase of the intervention and six during the second. The…

Promoting Turn-Taking Skills in Preschool Children with Disabilities: The Effects of a Peer-Based Social Communication Intervention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stanton-Chapman, Tina L.; Snell, Martha E.

2011-01-01

The current study evaluated the turn-taking skills of preschoolers with disabilities who participated in a social communication intervention that targeted initiations, responses, and turn-taking skills, and taught children to repair and revise and to avoid interruptions and overlaps. Ten children who enrolled in an inclusive at-risk classroom met…

Disentangling Mathematics Target and Access Skills: Implications for Accommodation Assignment Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ketterlin-Geller, Leanne R.; Jamgochian, Elisa M.; Nelson-Walker, Nancy J.; Geller, Joshua P.

2012-01-01

Appropriate assignment of accommodations is predicated on a clear distinction between target skills and access skills. In this study, we examine the agreement between test developer/researchers' and educators' classification of target and access skills as a possible explanatory mechanism for assigning accommodations. Findings indicate that…

Explicitly Teaching Social Skills Schoolwide: Using a Matrix to Guide Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simonsen, Brandi; Myers, Diane; Everett, Susannah; Sugai, George; Spencer, Rebecca; LaBreck, Chris

2012-01-01

Socially skilled students are more successful in school. Just like academic skills, social skills need to be explicitly taught. Students, including students who display at-risk behavior, benefit when social skills instruction is delivered schoolwide as part of a comprehensive intervention approach. This article presents a seven-step action…

Social Information Processing Patterns, Social Skills, and School Readiness in Preschool Children

PubMed Central

Ziv, Yair

2012-01-01

The links between social information processing, social competence, and school readiness were examined in this short-term longitudinal study with a sample of 198 preschool children. Data on social information processing were obtained via child interview, data on child social competence were obtained via teacher report, and data on school readiness were obtained via child assessment (early literacy skills) and teacher report (approaches to learning). Findings provided support for our hypothesis that both social information processing and social competence are related to school readiness. Social competence also partially mediated the link between social information processing and school readiness thus supporting our hypothesis about an indirect path in which mental processes are translated into social skills and then translated into school readiness. PMID:23046690

Social Skills and Family Climate of Behaviorally Disordered Adolescents.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Margalit, Malka; And Others

1988-01-01

The social skills and family climate of 53 Israeli behaviorally disordered adolescents were compared to 56 nondisabled controls. Subjects viewed themselves as socially adequate, but viewed their skills as highly interrelated, whereas controls revealed a more differential concept. Subjects' teachers viewed them as less socially competent than…

Parent- and Self-Reported Social Skills Importance in Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rankin, James A.; Weber, Rebecca J.; Kang, Erin; Lerner, Matthew D.

2016-01-01

While social skills are commonly assessed in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), little is known about individuals' and families' beliefs regarding importance of these skills. Seventy-four parents and their children with ASD rated social skills importance and severity, as well as ASD-specific deficit severity. Parents and youth rated social skills as…

Sizing Up Social Skills.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ostlund, Karen L.

1992-01-01

Describes how students' social skills can be assessed in the context of cooperative learning. Suggests that the following classroom protocols be assessed: (1) listen; (2) be responsible to others; (3) respect others; and (4) stay on task. Provides an assessment scale for these behaviors. (PR)

Self-Monitoring as a Means to Generalize Social Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Childs, Deborah

2012-01-01

Social skills are important for success in school as well as in life. Social skills training (SST) has been effective in teaching students required skills within the context of the training site, but often these have not generalized to additional settings (DuPaul & Eckert, 1994). This study researches the effect of adding self-management to an…

Importance of Social Skills in the Elementary Grades

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meier, Catherine R.; DiPerna, James C.; Oster, Maryjo M.

2006-01-01

This study explored elementary teachers' perceptions of the importance of social skills, as well as the stability of these perceptions over time. Importance ratings on the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS; Gresham & Elliott, 1990) were obtained from 50 elementary teachers (Grades 1-6) across six elementary schools. Results indicated that…

Social skills, friendship and happiness: a cross-cultural investigation.

PubMed

Demir, Melikşah; Jaafar, Jas; Bilyk, Nicholas; Ariff, Mohammad Raduan Mohd

2012-01-01

The present study investigated the associations between social skills, friendship quality, and happiness, and tested a mediational model positing that friendship quality would mediate the relationship between social skills and happiness among American and Malaysian college students. Although American students reported significantly higher levels of psychosocial well-being than Malaysian students, the study variables were positively associated with each other in both cultures. More importantly, findings supported the proposed model in both groups. Results suggest that part of the reason why social skills are associated with positive psychological well-being is because of friendship experiences. Overall, the findings of the present study reinforce, extend and cross-culturally generalize the presumed benefits of social skills in positive well-being elaborated by Segrin and Taylor (2007). The authors also provided suggestions for future research.

Effects of video modeling on communicative social skills of college students with Asperger syndrome.

PubMed

Mason, Rose A; Rispoli, Mandy; Ganz, Jennifer B; Boles, Margot B; Orr, Kristie

2012-01-01

Empirical support regarding effective interventions for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) within a postsecondary community is limited. Video modeling, an empirically supported intervention for children and adolescents with ASD, may prove effective in addressing the needs of individuals with ASD in higher education. This study evaluated the effects of video modeling without additional treatment components to improve social-communicative skills, specifically, eye contact, facial expression, and conversational turntaking in college students with ASD. This study utilized a multiple baseline single-case design across behaviors for two post-secondary students with ASD to evaluate the effects of the video modeling intervention. Large effect sizes and statistically significant change across all targeted skills for one participant and eye contact and turntaking for the other participant were obtained. The use of video modeling without additional intervention may increase the social skills of post-secondary students with ASD. Implications for future research are discussed.

Social Skills, Attractiveness and Gender: Factors in Perceived Social Support.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hacker, T. Anthony; And Others

Little research has focused on the particular characteristics necessary to gain and retain social support. To examine whether individuals' differing social support level could be differentiated on social skill level and physical appearance, and if these differences apply equally to males and females, 168 college students (84 males, 84 females)…

Social problem solving and social performance after a group social skills intervention for childhood brain tumor survivors.

PubMed

Schulte, Fiona; Vannatta, Kathryn; Barrera, Maru

2014-02-01

The aim of this study was to explore the ability of a group social skills intervention program for childhood brain tumor survivors to effect two steps of the social information processing model: social problem solving and social performance. Participants were 15 survivors (eight men and seven women) aged 7-15 years. The intervention consisted of eight 2-h weekly sessions focused on social skills including friendship making. Social problem solving, using hypothetical scenarios, was assessed during sessions 1 and 8. Social performance was observed during intervention sessions 1, 4, and 8. Compared with session 1, significant increases were found in social performance: frequency of maintaining eye contact and social conversations with peers over the course of the intervention. No significant changes in social problem solving were noted. This pilot study is the first to report improvements related to group social skills intervention at the level of observed social performance over the course of intervention. The lack of change in social problem solving suggests that survivors may possess the social knowledge required for social situations but have difficulty enacting social behaviors. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Specifying the Nature of Social Skill Deficits Associated with Depression.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Segrin, Chris

1992-01-01

Investigates the relationship between social skills and depression in a college student population. Finds that depression is associated with a partial social skill deficit, most notable in terms of excessive social anxiety, low motivation to communicate with others, low social expressivity, and diminished behavioral involvement. (PRA)

The Effects of Social Skills Training on Students with Exceptionalities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ciechalski, Joseph C.; Schmidt, Mary W.

1995-01-01

Outlines a year-long study which sought to determine the effectiveness of social skills training on peer acceptance, self-esteem, social attraction, and self-confidence of students with disabilities. Social skills training with these students positively affected their social interactions and involvement with their nondisabled peers. (RJM)

Addressing social skills deficits in adults with Williams syndrome.

PubMed

Fisher, Marisa H; Morin, Lindsay

2017-12-01

Individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) are hypersocial; yet, they experience social difficulties and trouble with relationships. This report summarizes findings from three studies examining the social functioning of adults with WS and the feasibility of a social skills training program for adults with WS (SSTP-WS) through the examination of performance on initial lesson plans. Study 1: 114 parents of adults with WS completed the Social Responsiveness Scale-2. Study 2: 10 adults with WS and 12 of their parents participated in focus groups to further describe the deficits identified in Study 1 and to discuss a SSTP-WS. Study 3: 30 adults with WS were randomly assigned to 2 lessons on either conversations or relationships and pre-post change in social skills knowledge was assessed. Study 1 indicates adults with WS experience severe social impairments in social cognition, and mild-moderate impairments in social awareness and social communication. Qualitative results in Study 2 indicate a SSTP-WS should address conversation skills and relationships. In Study 3, participants showed gains in social skills knowledge following completion of lessons. A SSTP-WS may be beneficial for adults with WS. Future research should describe the social needs of individuals with WS at different ages and should further develop a SSTP-WS. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An Evaluation of a Social Skills Intervention for Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Intellectual Disabilities preparing for Employment in Ireland: A Pilot Study.

PubMed

Walsh, Edith; Holloway, Jennifer; Lydon, Helena

2018-05-01

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are faced with significant barriers relating to employment opportunities and workplace participation. This study evaluated the effectiveness of the Walker social skills curriculum: the ACCESS program and video modeling to increase social communication skills necessary for workplace inclusion. Participants attended two sessions (i.e., 3 h) per week across a period of 20 weeks. A multiple-probe design was used to demonstrate social skills outcomes across three broad curricular areas (i.e., peer-related, adult-related, and self-related social skills). Pre-and post-intervention standardized assessments were also taken. Results showed significant increases in target social skills and a significant decrease in problem behaviors following intervention. Evidence of maintenance and generalization were also demonstrated. Implications for practice and research are discussed.

Social skills of persons with self-defeating personality.

PubMed

Schill, T

1995-10-01

55 undergraduate men and 55 women took Schill's 1990 Self-defeating Personality Scale and Lorr, Youniss, and Stefic's (1991) multidimensional Social Relations Survey. As expected, persons who endorsed more self-defeating characteristics scored lower on scales which make up the Social Skills or Assertiveness Factor. However, these scores did not have significant correlations with the Empathy or Social Approval Need Scales; two of the three scales which make up the Empathy Factor. The results were discussed in terms of prior work relating deficits in social skills to dysfunctional early parenting.

Executive Functions and Social Skills in Survivors of Pediatric Brain Tumor

PubMed Central

Wolfe, Kelly R.; Walsh, Karin S.; Reynolds, Nina C.; Mitchell, Frances; Reddy, Alyssa T.; Paltin, Iris; Madan-Swain, Avi

2012-01-01

Medical advances have resulted in increased survival rates for children with brain tumors. Consequently, issues related to survivorship have become more critical. The use of multimodal treatment, in particular cranial radiation therapy, has been associated with subsequent cognitive decline. Specifically, deficits in executive functions have been reported in survivors of various types of pediatric brain tumor. Survivors are left with difficulties, particularly in self-monitoring, initiation, inhibition, and planning, to name a few. Another domain in which survivors of pediatric brain tumor have been reported to show difficulty is that of social skills. Parents, teachers, and survivors themselves have reported decreased social functioning following treatment. Deficits in executive functions and social skills are likely interrelated in this population, as executive skills are needed to navigate various aspects of social interaction; however, this has yet to be studied empirically. Twenty-four survivors of pediatric brain tumor were assessed using a computerized task of executive functions, as well as paper and pencil measures of social skills and real world executive skills. Social functioning was related to a specific aspect of executive functions, i.e., the survivors’ variability in response time, such that inconsistent responding was associated with better parent-report and survivor-report social skills, independent of intellectual abilities. Additionally, parent-reported real-world global executive abilities predicted parent-reported social skills. The implications of these findings for social skills interventions and future research are discussed. PMID:22420326

Effects of a music therapy group intervention on enhancing social skills in children with autism.

PubMed

LaGasse, A Blythe

2014-01-01

Research indicates that music therapy can improve social behaviors and joint attention in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD); however, more research on the use of music therapy interventions for social skills is needed to determine the impact of group music therapy. To examine the effects of a music therapy group intervention on eye gaze, joint attention, and communication in children with ASD. Seventeen children, ages 6 to 9, with a diagnosis of ASD were randomly assigned to the music therapy group (MTG) or the no-music social skills group (SSG). Children participated in ten 50-minute group sessions over a period of 5 weeks. All group sessions were designed to target social skills. The Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), the Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC), and video analysis of sessions were used to evaluate changes in social behavior. There were significant between-group differences for joint attention with peers and eye gaze towards persons, with participants in the MTG demonstrating greater gains. There were no significant between-group differences for initiation of communication, response to communication, or social withdraw/behaviors. There was a significant interaction between time and group for SRS scores, with improvements for the MTG but not the SSG. Scores on the ATEC did not differ over time between the MTG and SSG. The results of this study support further research on the use of music therapy group interventions for social skills in children with ASD. Statistical results demonstrate initial support for the use of music therapy social groups to develop joint attention. © the American Music Therapy Association 2014. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Utilizing Social Work Skills to Enhance Entrepreneurship Training for Women: A Ghanaian Perspective.

PubMed

Agbényiga, Debrenna L; Ahmedani, Brian K

2008-12-01

This article describes a women's entrepreneurship exchange program that was designed and facilitated with the cooperation of various governmental and nongovernmental entities in Ghana for Ghanaian women. The article briefly reviews the entrepreneurship development literature from an international perspective and discusses the Entrepreneurship Program as a targeted approach for empowering and sustaining women's economic situation in Ghana. Emphasis is placed on understanding the impact of cultural and social networks and the women's ability to succeed as entrepreneurs through the use of social work skills.

A social skills analysis in childhood and adolescence using symbolic interactionism.

PubMed

Russell, A

1984-02-01

Support is obtained from the literature about the need for advances in the conceptualization of "social skills." There is agreement that much is known about how to improve social skills, but less attention has been given to what to change or improve. The present article outlines a model of social skills in childhood and adolescence using the concepts and literature on symbolic interactionism in an attempt to provide a possible conceptual framework for social skills. The proposed model is organized around the concepts of role-taking, role-making, definition of the situation, and self. Each concept is taken in turn and how it could contribute to the analysis or understanding of social skills in childhood and adolescence is shown. The article concludes with a discussion of ways in which the proposed scheme might be used in one area of social skills - friendship making. Some possible difficulties and limitations in the model are noted.

Longitudinal, reciprocal effects of social skills and achievement from kindergarten to eighth grade.

PubMed

Caemmerer, Jacqueline M; Keith, Timothy Z

2015-08-01

Previous research suggests that students' social skills and achievement are interrelated, and some findings support bi-directional effects between the two constructs. The purpose of this research study was to estimate the possible longitudinal and reciprocal effects of social skills and achievement for kindergarten through eighth grade students. Data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study program were analyzed; teachers' ratings of students' social skills and students' standardized math and reading achievement performance were collected 4 and 5 times, respectively. Latent variable structural equation modeling was used to test a panel model of reciprocal, longitudinal effects of social skills and achievement. The results suggest that the effects of students' social skills and achievement are bi-directional, but the effects of students' achievement on their later social skills are stronger than the effects of social skills on achievement. The significant effects of students' social skills on their later achievement are mostly indirect. These findings suggest that the future social skills of students who struggle academically may be of particular concern to educators, and intervention and prevention efforts aimed to address both social and achievement skills may help remediate the other skill in the future. Copyright © 2015 Society for the Study of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Relationship between Bullying and Social Skills in Primary School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Larke, Ian D.; Beran, Tanya N.

2006-01-01

In this study we examined the relationship between children's social skills and bullying behaviours. Teachers rated social skills and indirect and direct physical bullying behaviours of 120 students in elementary school. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that social skills are inversely related to both direct physical bullying (beta =…

Parent- and Self-Reported Social Skills Importance in Autism Spectrum Disorder.

PubMed

Rankin, James A; Weber, Rebecca J; Kang, Erin; Lerner, Matthew D

2016-01-01

While social skills are commonly assessed in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), little is known about individuals' and families' beliefs regarding importance of these skills. Seventy-four parents and their children with ASD rated social skills importance and severity, as well as ASD-specific deficit severity. Parents and youth rated social skills as important overall; however, parents reported assertion and self-control to be more important than their children did. Severity and importance did not correlate overall. However, parent-report of responsibility deficits and importance were positively correlated, while youth-report of assertiveness deficits and importance were negatively correlated. Finally, ASD-specific social deficits were positively correlated with parent reported importance, but negatively correlated with child reported importance. Social skills importance ratings merit consideration in ASD assessment.

Working memory dysfunctions predict social problem solving skills in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Huang, Jia; Tan, Shu-ping; Walsh, Sarah C; Spriggens, Lauren K; Neumann, David L; Shum, David H K; Chan, Raymond C K

2014-12-15

The current study aimed to examine the contribution of neurocognition and social cognition to components of social problem solving. Sixty-seven inpatients with schizophrenia and 31 healthy controls were administrated batteries of neurocognitive tests, emotion perception tests, and the Chinese Assessment of Interpersonal Problem Solving Skills (CAIPSS). MANOVAs were conducted to investigate the domains in which patients with schizophrenia showed impairments. Correlations were used to determine which impaired domains were associated with social problem solving, and multiple regression analyses were conducted to compare the relative contribution of neurocognitive and social cognitive functioning to components of social problem solving. Compared with healthy controls, patients with schizophrenia performed significantly worse in sustained attention, working memory, negative emotion, intention identification and all components of the CAIPSS. Specifically, sustained attention, working memory and negative emotion identification were found to correlate with social problem solving and 1-back accuracy significantly predicted the poor performance in social problem solving. Among the dysfunctions in schizophrenia, working memory contributed most to deficits in social problem solving in patients with schizophrenia. This finding provides support for targeting working memory in the development of future social problem solving rehabilitation interventions. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Social skills training for drug prevention in high-risk female adolescents.

PubMed

Palinkas, L A; Atkins, C J; Miller, C; Ferreira, D

1996-01-01

The effectiveness of social skills training/social network restructuring in the primary and secondary prevention of drug use was examined in a multiethnic cohort of 296 female adolescents ages 14 to 19 years who were pregnant or parenting and/or at risk for drug use. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: (a) PALS Skills Training or (b) a control intervention involving no skills training. PALS Skills Training is a combination of cognitive and behavioral techniques to improve social skills and to restructure the teens' social network. All students also participated in a 16-week normative education "Facts of Life" course. The prevalence of alcohol and any drug use increased significantly over the three assessment periods in the PALS Skills group but not in the No Skills group. Teens in the PALS Skills group who reported no drug use at baseline were 2.9 times as likely to be using marijuana than teens in the No Skills group at 3 months postintervention. PALS Skills Training was no more effective in the secondary prevention of drug use than the control intervention. Social skills training was found to be ineffective as a means of primary prevention among non-drug-using high-risk adolescents and may even be counterproductive as a means of primary prevention of marijuana use in this population. When combined with normative information on drug use prevalence, acceptability, and hazards, social skills training is no more effective as a means of secondary prevention than normative education alone.

The relationship between social skills and early resignation in Japanese novice nurses.

PubMed

Niitsuma, Mayuko; Katsuki, Takeshi; Sakuma, Yumiko; Sato, Chifumi

2012-07-01

The aim of this study was to reveal the relationship between social skills and early resignation in Japanese novice nurses. The early resignation of novice nurses has become increasingly prevalent in recent years. This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between the personal sociality of novice nurses and their early resignation. We surveyed 272 nurses with 1-3 years of experience. Instances of early resignation were studied by using a questionnaire, and their social skills were measured using Kikuchi's Scale of Social Skills:18 items (KiSS-18), a tool developed by Kikuchi to estimate sociality. Nurses with low sociality were more likely to resign than those with higher sociality. The lack of advanced social skills was closely associated with a higher likelihood of early resignation. The presence of advanced social skills appeared to potentially prevent resignation among novice nurses. Further investigation is needed to determine the causal relationship between sociality and early resignation. Social skills training for novice nurses may be of benefit in preventing early resignation. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Reading interventions with behavioral and social skill outcomes: a synthesis of research.

PubMed

Roberts, Garrett J; Solis, Michael; Ciullo, Stephen; McKenna, John W; Vaughn, Sharon

2015-01-01

Research findings have suggested that reading deficits and problem behaviors are positively related. This synthesis investigated how reading interventions impact behavioral/social skill outcomes by reviewing studies that included (a) a reading intervention without behavioral/social skill components, (b) behavioral/social skill dependent variables, and (c) students in Grades K-12. Fifteen articles were evaluated by the type of reading intervention, associations between positive reading effects and behavioral/social skill outcomes, and The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) determinants of study ratings. Findings suggested that reading interventions tended to have positive reading outcomes, while behavioral/social skill outcomes were small or negative. Research did not suggest an association between improved reading and behavioral performance, regardless of the WWC study determinants rating. Implications include reading instruction may not be sufficient to improve behavioral and social skill outcomes. Additional research is warranted to investigate the long-term impact of reading on behavioral and social skill outcomes. © The Author(s) 2014.

Memory and social skill in schizophrenia: the role of gender.

PubMed

Mueser, K T; Blanchard, J J; Bellack, A S

1995-07-28

The relationship between social skill and memory was examined in a group of patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. There were few or no differences between male and female patients in history of the illness, symptomatology, memory, and other cognitive factors, or social skill. Despite the absence of differences, impaired memory was related to poorer social skills for the women, but not the men. Reanalysis of data on social skill and memory from an earlier study (Mueser et al., 1991) revealed a similar pattern of results. The findings suggest that the contribution of cognitive factors to impaired social competence in schizophrenia may differ in men and women. Alternatively, the results may reflect sampling bias, whereby more severely ill women are studied than men, relative to their respective populations.

How Does Gender Relate to Social Skills? Exploring Differences in Social Skills Mindsets, Academics, and Behaviors among High-School Freshmen Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tan, Kevin; Oe, Jin Shin; Hoang Le, Minh Dung

2018-01-01

Boys struggle academically and behaviorally more than girls and are more likely to have difficulty with social skills. It seems likely that boys and girls do not perceive social skills in the same light. Past research has not investigated this or its relationship to academic and behavioral performance. Using data from a cohort of 9th-grade…

Comparing the social skills of students addicted to computer games with normal students.

PubMed

Zamani, Eshrat; Kheradmand, Ali; Cheshmi, Maliheh; Abedi, Ahmad; Hedayati, Nasim

2010-01-01

This study aimed to investigate and compare the social skills of studentsaddicted to computer games with normal students. The dependentvariable in the present study is the social skills. The study population included all the students in the second grade ofpublic secondary school in the city of Isfahan at the educational year of2009-2010. The sample size included 564 students selected using thecluster random sampling method. Data collection was conducted usingQuestionnaire of Addiction to Computer Games and Social SkillsQuestionnaire (The Teenage Inventory of Social Skill or TISS). The results of the study showed that generally, there was a significantdifference between the social skills of students addicted to computer gamesand normal students. In addition, the results indicated that normal studentshad a higher level of social skills in comparison with students addicted tocomputer games. As the study results showed, addiction to computer games may affectthe quality and quantity of social skills. In other words, the higher theaddiction to computer games, the less the social skills. The individualsaddicted to computer games have less social skills.).

Comparing the Social Skills of Students Addicted to Computer Games with Normal Students

PubMed Central

Zamani, Eshrat; Kheradmand, Ali; Cheshmi, Maliheh; Abedi, Ahmad; Hedayati, Nasim

2010-01-01

Background This study aimed to investigate and compare the social skills of studentsaddicted to computer games with normal students. The dependentvariable in the present study is the social skills. Methods The study population included all the students in the second grade ofpublic secondary school in the city of Isfahan at the educational year of2009-2010. The sample size included 564 students selected using thecluster random sampling method. Data collection was conducted usingQuestionnaire of Addiction to Computer Games and Social SkillsQuestionnaire (The Teenage Inventory of Social Skill or TISS). Findings The results of the study showed that generally, there was a significantdifference between the social skills of students addicted to computer gamesand normal students. In addition, the results indicated that normal studentshad a higher level of social skills in comparison with students addicted tocomputer games. Conclusion As the study results showed, addiction to computer games may affectthe quality and quantity of social skills. In other words, the higher theaddiction to computer games, the less the social skills. The individualsaddicted to computer games have less social skills.). PMID:24494102

Investigating the Relationship between Internet Addiction and Strengthening Students' Social Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karimzadeh, Nazanin

2015-01-01

The present study is about "Investigating the relationship between internet addictions and strengthening students' social skill reinforcement." One of the social elements in all cultures is social skill or ability to communicate with others effectively. One of the factors that affect this skill is addiction to Internet which has recently…

Social and Communicational Skills in Upper Secondary Vocational Education and Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Raisanen, Anu; Rakkolainen, Mari

2009-01-01

This article presents the methodology used by the Finnish Education Evaluation Council in the national evaluation of social and communication skills in vocational education and training. The evaluation concentrates on key competences such as learning-to-learn skills, communication skills, social skills and entrepreneurship (Implementation of…

An Investigation of Maternal Emotion Socialization Behaviors, Children's Self-Perceptions, and Social Problem-Solving Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ozkan, Hurside Kubra; Aksoy, Ayse Belgin

2017-01-01

Purpose: The present study aims to investigate maternal emotion socialization, children's self-perception, and social problem-solving skills. In addition, this study describes the association between the levels of children's self-perception and social problem-solving skills. Research Methods: This is a quantitative study adopting a relational…

Base Rates of Social Skills Acquisition/Performance Deficits, Strengths, and Problem Behaviors: An Analysis of the Social Skills Improvement System-Rating Scales

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gresham, Frank M.; Elliott, Stephen N.; Kettler, Ryan J.

2010-01-01

Base rate information is important in clinical assessment because one cannot know how unusual or typical a phenomenon is without first knowing its base rate in the population. This study empirically determined the base rates of social skills acquisition and performance deficits, social skills strengths, and problem behaviors using a nationally…

Utilizing Social Work Skills to Enhance Entrepreneurship Training for Women: A Ghanaian Perspective

PubMed Central

Agbényiga, DeBrenna L.; Ahmedani, Brian K.

2009-01-01

This article describes a women’s entrepreneurship exchange program that was designed and facilitated with the cooperation of various governmental and nongovernmental entities in Ghana for Ghanaian women. The article briefly reviews the entrepreneurship development literature from an international perspective and discusses the Entrepreneurship Program as a targeted approach for empowering and sustaining women’s economic situation in Ghana. Emphasis is placed on understanding the impact of cultural and social networks and the women’s ability to succeed as entrepreneurs through the use of social work skills. PMID:20011682

Generalization of Social Skills: Strategies and Results of a Training Program in Problem Solving Skills.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paraschiv, Irina; Olley, J. Gregory

This paper describes the "Problem Solving for Life" training program which trains adolescents and adults with mental retardation in skills for solving social problems. The program requires group participants to solve social problems by practicing two prerequisite skills (relaxation and positive self-statements) and four problem solving steps: (1)…

School-based social skills training for preschool-age children with autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Radley, Keith C; Hanglein, Jeanine; Arak, Marisa

2016-11-01

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder display impairments in social interactions and communication that appear at early ages and result in short- and long-term negative outcomes. As such, there is a need for effective social skills training programs for young children with autism spectrum disorder-particularly interventions capable of being delivered in educational settings. The study evaluated the effects of the Superheroes Social Skills program on accurate demonstration of social skills in young children with autism spectrum disorder. Two preschool-age children with autism spectrum disorder participated in a weekly social skills intervention. A multiple probe design across skills was used to determine the effects of the intervention. Both participants demonstrated substantial improvements in skill accuracy. Social skills checklists also indicated improvements in social functioning over baseline levels. © The Author(s) 2016.

The Fair Play Game: Promoting Social Skills in Physical Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vidoni, Carla; Ulman, Jerome D.

2012-01-01

The implementation of social skills into teaching helps students achieve such important affective outcomes as peer recognition or popularity, respect for others, acceptance of rules, pro-social values, communication skills, and positive social interactions. Within physical education, many professionals believe that students who engage in games and…

A Review of Treatments for Deficits in Social Skills and Self-Help Skills in Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flynn, Lorna; Healy, Olive

2012-01-01

Deficits in social skills and self-help skills present significant challenges for individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Much research in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) has been devoted to treatments for deficits in social skills and there exist a number of extensive reviews on the research in this area. Some research has…

Association of social skills with psychological distress among female nurses in Japan.

PubMed

Uchiyama, Ayako; Odagiri, Yuko; Ohya, Yumiko; Suzuki, Ayako; Hirohata, Kayoko; Kosugi, Shotaro; Shimomitsu, Teruichi

2011-01-01

Nursing is a highly stressful occupation. Because nursing work involves interaction with patients and colleagues, competence in social skills may be a key issue in stress management among nurses. However, there are very few studies among nurses focused on social skills together with social support, both of which are important aspects of job stress. The aim of this study was to examine the interrelationships between social skills and social support with job stressors, problem-solving coping, and psychological distress among Japanese nurses. Data from a self-administered questionnaire of 1,197 female nurses who worked for 5 general hospitals in Japan were analyzed. Covariance structure analysis with structural equation modeling techniques showed that social skills and social support were positively related to each other, while they were negatively associated with psychological distress and job stressors, and positively associated with problem-solving coping. Furthermore, the direct association between social skills and psychological distress was stronger than the association between social support and psychological distress. These findings suggested that improving not only social support at work but also individual social skills is important for nurses' mental health.

Understanding Social Situations (USS): A proof-of-concept social-cognitive intervention targeting theory of mind and attributional bias in individuals with psychosis.

PubMed

Fiszdon, Joanna M; Roberts, David L; Penn, David L; Choi, Kee-Hong; Tek, Cenk; Choi, Jimmy; Bell, Morris D

2017-03-01

In this proof-of-concept trial, we examined the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of Understanding Social Situations (USS), a new social-cognitive intervention that targets higher level social-cognitive skills using methods common to neurocognitive remediation, including drill and practice and hierarchically structured training, which may compensate for the negative effects of cognitive impairment on learning. Thirty-eight individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders completed the same baseline assessment of cognitive and social-cognitive functioning twice over a 1-month period to minimize later practice effects, then received 7-10 sessions of USS training, and then completed the same assessment again at posttreatment. USS training was well tolerated and received high treatment satisfaction ratings. Large improvements on the USS Skills Test, which contained items similar to but not identical to training stimuli, suggest that we were effective in teaching specific training content. Content gains generalized to improvements on some of the social-cognitive tasks, including select measures of attributional bias and theory of mind. Importantly, baseline neurocognition did not impact the amount of learning during USS (as indexed by the USS Skills Test) or the amount of improvement on social-cognitive measures. USS shows promise as a treatment for higher level social-cognitive skills. Given the lack of relationship between baseline cognition and treatment effects, it may be particularly appropriate for individuals with lower range cognitive function. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Understanding Social Situations (USS): A proof-of-concept social cognitive intervention targeting theory of mind and attributional bias in individuals with psychosis

PubMed Central

Fiszdon, Joanna M.; Roberts, David L.; Penn, David L.; Choi, Kee-Hong; Tek, Cenk; Choi, Jimmy; Bell, Morris D.

2016-01-01

Objectives In this proof-of-concept trial, we examined the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of Understanding Social Situations (USS), a new social cognitive intervention that targets higher-level social cognitive skills using methods common to neurocognitive remediation, including drill and practice and hierarchically structured training, which may compensate for the negative effects of cognitive impairment on learning. Methods Thirty-eight individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders completed the same baseline assessment of cognitive and social cognitive functioning twice over a one month period to minimize later practice effects, then received 7–10 sessions of USS training, and then completed the same assessment again at post-treatment Results USS training was well tolerated and received high treatment satisfaction ratings. Large improvements on the USS Skills Test, which contained items similar to but not identical to training stimuli, suggest that we were effective in teaching specific training content. Content gains generalized to improvements on some of the social cognitive tasks, including select measures of attributional bias and theory of mind. Importantly, baseline neurocognition did not impact the amount of learning during USS (as indexed by USS Skills test), nor the amount of improvement on social cognitive measures. Conclusions and Implications for Practice USS shows promise as a treatment for higher-level social cognitive skills. Given the lack of relationship between baseline cognition and treatment effects, it may be particularly appropriate for individuals with lower-range cognitive function. PMID:27281040

Social conversational skills development in early implanted children.

PubMed

Guerzoni, Letizia; Murri, Alessandra; Fabrizi, Enrico; Nicastri, Maria; Mancini, Patrizia; Cuda, Domenico

2016-09-01

Social conversational skills are a salient aspect of early pragmatic development in young children. These skills include two different abilities, assertiveness and responsiveness. This study investigated the development of these abilities in early implanted children and their relationships with lexical development and some language-sensitive variables. Prospective, observational, nonrandomized study. Participants included 28 children with congenital profound sensorineural hearing loss. The mean age at device activation was 13.3 months (standard deviation [SD] ±4.2). The Social-Conversational Skills Rating Scale was used to evaluate assertiveness and responsiveness. The MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (Words and Sentences form) was used to analyze the lexical development. The device experience was 12 months for each child, and the mean age at testing was 25.9 months (SD ±4.6). Assertiveness and responsiveness scores were within the normal range of normal-hearing age-matched peers. Age at cochlear implant activation exerted a significant impact, with the highest scores associated to the youngest patients. The residual correlations between assertiveness and responsiveness with the lexical development were positive and strongly significant (r = 0.69 and 0.73, respectively). Preoperative hearing threshold demonstrated an associated significant coefficient on the assertiveness score. Age at diagnosis and maternal education level were not correlated with the social conversational skills. Early-implanted children developed social conversational skills that are similar to normal-hearing peers matched for age 1 year after device activation. Social conversational skills and lexical development were strongly correlated, but the present study design cannot specify the direction of this relationship. Children with better preoperative residual hearing exhibited better assertive ability. 4 Laryngoscope, 126:2098-2105, 2016. © 2015 The American Laryngological

Urban College Graduates: Their Investments in and Returns for Strong Quantitative Skills, Social Capital Skills, and Soft Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haynes, Marie Ellen

2010-01-01

This case study examined strong quantitative skills, social capital skills, and soft skills of urban college graduates using data from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality Household Survey. The urban college graduates lived in Atlanta, Boston, or Los Angeles and had bachelor's, master's, PhD, and professional degrees. Among the three skills…

21st Century Skills Map: Social Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2007

2007-01-01

This 21st Century Skills Map is the result of hundreds of hours of research, development and feedback from educators and business leaders across the nation. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has issued this map for the core subject of Social Studies.

Social and behavioral skills and the gender gap in early educational achievement.

PubMed

Diprete, Thomas A; Jennings, Jennifer L

2012-01-01

Though many studies have suggested that social and behavioral skills play a central role in gender stratification processes, we know little about the extent to which these skills affect gender gaps in academic achievement. Analyzing data from the Early Child Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort, we demonstrate that social and behavioral skills have substantively important effects on academic outcomes from kindergarten through fifth grade. Gender differences in the acquisition of these skills, moreover, explain a considerable fraction of the gender gap in academic outcomes during early elementary school. Boys get roughly the same academic return to social and behavioral skills as their female peers, but girls begin school with more advanced social and behavioral skills and their skill advantage grows over time. While part of the effect may reflect an evaluation process that rewards students who better conform to school norms, our results imply that the acquisition of social and behavioral skills enhances learning as well. Our results call for a reconsideration of the family and school-level processes that produce gender gaps in social and behavioral skills and the advantages they confer for academic and later success. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Bullying among Special Education Students with Intellectual Disabilities: Differences in Social Adjustment and Social Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reiter, Shunit; Lapidot-Lefler, Noam

2007-01-01

Harassment and bullying among 186 students with intellectual disabilities, ages 12 to 21 years, in special education schools were examined. The differences between bullies and victims in terms of social adjustment and social skills were investigated. No prototypes characterizing differences in social skills were found between the three subgroups:…

Yes, Michael: Reflections on How Inclusion Can Build Social Skills.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, Genan T.

2003-01-01

Describes a teacher's and preschool students' experiences with the classroom inclusion of an autistic child. Specifically addresses: (1) how social skills affect academic skills; (2) teaching social competency; (3) coaching group entry; (4) successful group entry and sustained social interaction; and (5) lessons learned from inclusion of a special…

The Social Skills and Attachment to Dogs of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carlisle, Gretchen K.

2015-01-01

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have deficits in social skills, and interaction with service dogs has been associated with increased social skills for children with ASD. In this telephone survey of 70 parents of children with ASD, children owning dogs had greater Mean scores for social skills, using the Social Skills Improvement…

Associations between Preschoolers' Social-Emotional Competence and Preliteracy Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Curby, Timothy W.; Brown, Chavaughn A.; Bassett, Hideko Hamada; Denham, Susanne A.

2015-01-01

Identifying and understanding the predictors of preliteracy skills can set the stage for success in a child's academic career. Recent literature has implicated social-emotional competence as a potential component in helping children learn preliteracy skills. To further understand the role of social-emotional competence in preliteracy, the…

Intrusive fathering, children's self-regulation and social skills: a mediation analysis.

PubMed

Stevenson, M; Crnic, K

2013-06-01

Fathers have unique influences on children's development, and particularly in the development of social skills. Although father-child relationship influences on children's social competence have received increased attention in general, research on fathering in families of children with developmental delays (DD) is scant. This study examined the pathway of influence among paternal intrusive behaviour, child social skills and child self-regulatory ability, testing a model whereby child regulatory behaviour mediates relations between fathering and child social skills. Participants were 97 families of children with early identified DD enrolled in an extensive longitudinal study. Father and mother child-directed intrusiveness was coded live in naturalistic home observations at child age 4.5, child behaviour dysregulation was coded from a video-taped laboratory problem-solving task at child age 5, and child social skills were measured using independent teacher reports at child age 6. Analyses tested for mediation of the relationship between fathers' intrusiveness and child social skills by child behaviour dysregulation. Fathers' intrusiveness, controlling for mothers' intrusiveness and child behaviour problems, was related to later child decreased social skills and this relationship was mediated by child behaviour dysregulation. Intrusive fathering appears to carry unique risk for the development of social skills in children with DD. Findings are discussed as they related to theories of fatherhood and parenting in children with DD, as well as implications for intervention and future research. © 2012 The Authors. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research © 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd, MENCAP & IASSID.

Group Intervention: Improving Social Skills of Adolescents with Learning Disabilities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Court, Deborah; Givon, Sarah

2003-01-01

This article describes the Life Skills program used to improve the social skills of 12 students with learning disabilities in an Israeli middle school. Each of two groups (girls or boys) met weekly for 5 months to address social skills topics. The article notes gender differences in reactions and participation, and outcomes in such areas as…

Social Skills and Executive Function Among Youth With Sickle Cell Disease: A Preliminary Investigation

PubMed Central

Wolfe, Kelly; Lebensburger, Jeffrey; Nieman, Jilian; Barnes, Margaux; Nolan, William; King, Allison; Madan-Swain, Avi

2014-01-01

Objectives To explore the relationship between executive function (EF) and social skills in youth with sickle cell disease (SCD). Methods 20 youth with SCD completed objective tests of EF (Tasks of Executive Control; Animal Sorting subtest from the Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment-Second Edition), an IQ screener, and paper-and-pencil measures of social skills (Social Skills Improvement System [SSIS]). Primary caregivers completed paper-and-pencil measures of EF (Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function) and social skills (SSIS). Results EF scores from the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function related to parent- and child-reported social skills such that EF deficits correlated with poorer overall and domain-specific social skills. Similarly, EF scores from the Animal Sorting test related to child-reported social skills. Worse parent-reported EF predicted worse parent-reported social skills above the variance accounted for by IQ. Conclusions EF is related to social skills and may be necessary for successful social interaction among youth with SCD. These results provide rationale and guidance for future larger-scale investigations of EF and social skills among children with SCD. PMID:24431467

SOCIAL: An Integrative Framework for the Development of Social Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beauchamp, Miriam H.; Anderson, Vicki

2010-01-01

Despite significant advances in the field of social neuroscience, much remains to be understood regarding the development and maintenance of social skills across the life span. Few comprehensive models exist that integrate multidisciplinary perspectives and explain the multitude of factors that influence the emergence and expression of social…

The Effect of Montessori Method Supported by Social Skills Training Program on Turkish Kindergarten Children's Skills of Understanding Feelings and Social Problem Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kayili, Gökhan; Ari, Ramazan

2016-01-01

The current research was conducted with the purpose of analyzing the effect of Montessori method supported by Social Skills Training Program on kindergarten children's skills of understanding feelings and social problem solving. 53 children attending Ihsan Dogramaci Applied Nursery School affiliated to Selcuk University, Faculty of Health Sciences…

Reliability and Validity of the Matson Evaluation of Social Skills with Youngsters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matson, Johnny L.; Neal, Daniene; Fodstad, Jill C.; Hess, Julie A.; Mahan, Sara; Rivet, Tessa T.

2010-01-01

Social skills are an important part of development, and deficits in this area have long-term impacts on a child. As a result, clinicians should include a measure of social skills as part of a comprehensive assessment. There are a few well-researched measures of social skills that are currently used, including the Matson Evaluation of Social Skills…

Social Skills Training for Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder Using Facebook (Project Rex Connect): A Survey Study

PubMed Central

Morriss, Danielle; Warren, Nancy; Truelove, James; Warthen, Jennifer; Ross, Charles Paul; Mood, George; Snook, Charlotte Anne; Borckardt, Jeffrey

2017-01-01

this study has the potential to reach a mass number of patients with ASD and could address disparities in access to in-person treatment services. However, the complexity and evolving nature of Facebook’s website and privacy settings leads to a number of unique online safety concerns that may limit its clinical utility. Issues encountered in our study support the development of an alternative and closed Web-based social platform designed specifically for the target audience with ASD; this platform could be a safer and more easily moderated setting for aiding in social skills development. Despite a small sample size with no statistically significant improvements of target symptoms, the use of electronic screen media as a therapeutic tool for adolescents with ASD is still a promising area of research warranting further investigation. Our study helps inform future obstacles regarding feasibility and safety. PMID:28115297

Social Skills Training for Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder Using Facebook (Project Rex Connect): A Survey Study.

PubMed

Gwynette, McLeod Frampton; Morriss, Danielle; Warren, Nancy; Truelove, James; Warthen, Jennifer; Ross, Charles Paul; Mood, George; Snook, Charlotte Anne; Borckardt, Jeffrey

2017-01-23

of patients with ASD and could address disparities in access to in-person treatment services. However, the complexity and evolving nature of Facebook's website and privacy settings leads to a number of unique online safety concerns that may limit its clinical utility. Issues encountered in our study support the development of an alternative and closed Web-based social platform designed specifically for the target audience with ASD; this platform could be a safer and more easily moderated setting for aiding in social skills development. Despite a small sample size with no statistically significant improvements of target symptoms, the use of electronic screen media as a therapeutic tool for adolescents with ASD is still a promising area of research warranting further investigation. Our study helps inform future obstacles regarding feasibility and safety. ©McLeod Frampton Gwynette, Danielle Morriss, Nancy Warren, James Truelove, Jennifer Warthen, Charles Paul Ross, George Mood, Charlotte Anne Snook, Jeffrey Borckardt. Originally published in JMIR Mental Health (http://mental.jmir.org), 23.01.2017.

Social skills group training in high-functioning autism: A qualitative responder study.

PubMed

Choque Olsson, Nora; Rautio, Daniel; Asztalos, Jenny; Stoetzer, Ulrich; Bölte, Sven

2016-11-01

Systematic reviews show some evidence for the efficacy of group-based social skills group training in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder, but more rigorous research is needed to endorse generalizability. In addition, little is known about the perspectives of autistic individuals participating in social skills group training. Using a qualitative approach, the objective of this study was to examine experiences and opinions about social skills group training of children and adolescents with higher functioning autism spectrum disorder and their parents following participation in a manualized social skills group training ("KONTAKT"). Within an ongoing randomized controlled clinical trial (NCT01854346) and based on outcome data from the Social Responsiveness Scale, six high responders and five low-to-non-responders to social skills group training and one parent of each child (N = 22) were deep interviewed. Interestingly, both high responders and low-to-non-responders (and their parents) reported improvements in social communication and related skills (e.g. awareness of own difficulties, self-confidence, independence in everyday life) and overall treatment satisfaction, although more positive intervention experiences were expressed by responders. These findings highlight the added value of collecting verbal data in addition to quantitative data in a comprehensive evaluation of social skills group training. © The Author(s) 2016.

Development and Evaluation of a Technology Integrated Social Skills Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bunting, Tia Wheatley

2009-01-01

Social skills in the United States are in serious decline. This decline is seen and heard on television, in movies, in magazines, on radio programs, on the streets, and in the schools. Worcester Preparatory School is alarmed by the decline of social skills. Students at Worcester have increasingly shown difficulty in social interactions. The…

Psychometric Characteristics of Role-Play Assessments of Social Skill in Schizophrenia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bellack, Alan S.; Brown, Clayton H.; Thomas-Lohrman, Shannon

2006-01-01

There is an extensive literature documenting that people with schizophrenia have marked impairments in social role functioning and social skill. One of the most widely employed strategies for assessing social skill has been role-play tests: simulated social interactions that are videotaped for subsequent behavioral coding. There has been…

Social skills and executive function among youth with sickle cell disease: a preliminary investigation.

PubMed

Hensler, Molly; Wolfe, Kelly; Lebensburger, Jeffrey; Nieman, Jilian; Barnes, Margaux; Nolan, William; King, Allison; Madan-Swain, Avi

2014-06-01

To explore the relationship between executive function (EF) and social skills in youth with sickle cell disease (SCD).   20 youth with SCD completed objective tests of EF (Tasks of Executive Control; Animal Sorting subtest from the Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment-Second Edition), an IQ screener, and paper-and-pencil measures of social skills (Social Skills Improvement System [SSIS]). Primary caregivers completed paper-and-pencil measures of EF (Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function) and social skills (SSIS).   EF scores from the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function related to parent- and child-reported social skills such that EF deficits correlated with poorer overall and domain-specific social skills. Similarly, EF scores from the Animal Sorting test related to child-reported social skills. Worse parent-reported EF predicted worse parent-reported social skills above the variance accounted for by IQ.   EF is related to social skills and may be necessary for successful social interaction among youth with SCD. These results provide rationale and guidance for future larger-scale investigations of EF and social skills among children with SCD. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Pediatric Psychology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Social cognition in patients at ultra-high risk for psychosis: What is the relation to social skills and functioning?

PubMed

Glenthøj, Louise B; Fagerlund, Birgitte; Hjorthøj, Carsten; Jepsen, Jens R M; Bak, Nikolaj; Kristensen, Tina D; Wenneberg, Christina; Krakauer, Kristine; Roberts, David L; Nordentoft, Merete

2016-09-01

Patients at ultra-high risk (UHR) for psychosis show significant impairments in functioning. It is essential to determine which factors influence functioning, as it may have implications for intervention strategies. This study examined whether social cognitive abilities and clinical symptoms are associated with functioning and social skills. The study included 65 UHR patients and 30 healthy controls. Social cognitive function, social skills, and a broad range of functioning measures were assessed. The UHR patients demonstrated significant decrements on The Awareness of Social Inferences Task total score (p = .046, d  = .51), and on the CANTAB emotion recognition task total percent correct (p = .023, d  = .54) displaying particular difficulties in negative affect recognition. The patients exhibited significant impairments in social skills measured with the High Risk Social Challenge (p˂.001, d  = 1.05). Aspects of emotion recognition were associated with role functioning and social skill performance. The level of attributional bias was associated with overall functioning, and theory of mind ability was associated with self-reported functioning. Negative symptoms were associated with all measures of functioning (p ≤ .05). Significant impairments in social cognition and social skills were found in UHR patients. The patients' social cognitive function was associated with overall functioning and social skills. Negative symptoms appear to play an important role for functioning. Research is needed to investigate how the relations between social cognition, social skills and functioning develop from the UHR state to the stage of manifest illness. Research into how deficits in social cognition and social skills can be ameliorated in UHR patients is warranted.

Investigation of the Effect of Story-Based Social Skills Training Program on the Social Skill Development of 5-6 Year-Old Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pekdogan, Serpil

2016-01-01

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of Story-Based Social Skills Training Program on the social skill development of 5-6 year-old children. In the study, the pre-test/post-test and retention test experimental design with a control group was used. 5-6 year-old 60 (30 experimental, 30 control) preschool children participated in the…

Social Work and Law Interdisciplinary Service Learning: Increasing Future Lawyers' Interpersonal Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boys, Stephanie K.; Quiring, Stephanie Q.; Harris, Evan; Hagan, Carrie A.

2015-01-01

Social workers and attorneys both interact with persons from diverse backgrounds every day, yet although interpersonal skills are an essential focus of social work education, these skills are not addressed in legal education. Interdisciplinary courses in which social workers and lawyers learn interpersonal skills together and have an opportunity…

Teaching Learning-Related Social Skills in Kindergarten Physical Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Michelle Hsiu-Chen; Karp, Grace Goc; Davis, Debby

2010-01-01

A lack of social skills may lead young children to have difficulties in establishing close relationships with their peers. This could lead to school maladjustment and academic failure. Research indicates that it is important for children to learn specific learning-related social skills (LRSS) to get along with others in order to succeed in the…

Emotional intelligence skills for maintaining social networks in healthcare organizations.

PubMed

Freshman, Brenda; Rubino, Louis

2004-01-01

For healthcare organizations to survive in these increasingly challenging times, leadership and management must face mounting interpersonal concerns. The authors present the boundaries of internal and external social networks with respect to leadership and managerial functions: Social networks within the organization are stretched by reductions in available resources and structural ambiguity, whereas external social networks are stressed by interorganizational competitive pressures. The authors present the development of emotional intelligence skills in employees as a strategic training objective that can strengthen the internal and external social networks of healthcare organizations. The authors delineate the unique functions of leadership and management with respect to the application of emotional intelligence skills and discuss training and future research implications for emotional intelligence skill sets and social networks.

The Focus of Intervention for Adolescent Social Anxiety: Communication Skills or Self-Esteem

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bowles, Terence V.

2017-01-01

Social skills training is a long-standing intervention for adolescents with social anxiety, while self-esteem is often ignored. However, there is little evidence suggesting that those with social anxiety require social skills training or interventions associated with self-esteem. The aim of the research was to investigate whether social skills and…

A Closer Look at Social Skills and School Performance: Students' Peer Relations Skills and Assertion Skills as Predictors for Their Written and Oral Performances

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jurkowski, Susanne; Hänze, Martin

2017-01-01

Students' individual learning is supposed to be based on cognitive and social processes. Therefore, students' social skills are assumed to play an important role for school performance. This study set out to investigate the links between students' peer relations skills and assertion skills and their grades for written performances and oral…

Modeling social learning of language and skills.

PubMed

Vogt, Paul; Haasdijk, Evert

2010-01-01

We present a model of social learning of both language and skills, while assuming—insofar as possible—strict autonomy, virtual embodiment, and situatedness. This model is built by integrating various previous models of language development and social learning, and it is this integration that, under the mentioned assumptions, provides novel challenges. The aim of the article is to investigate what sociocognitive mechanisms agents should have in order to be able to transmit language from one generation to the next so that it can be used as a medium to transmit internalized rules that represent skill knowledge. We have performed experiments where this knowledge solves the familiar poisonous-food problem. Simulations reveal under what conditions, regarding population structure, agents can successfully solve this problem. In addition to issues relating to perspective taking and mutual exclusivity, we show that agents need to coordinate interactions so that they can establish joint attention in order to form a scaffold for language learning, which in turn forms a scaffold for the learning of rule-based skills. Based on these findings, we conclude by hypothesizing that social learning at one level forms a scaffold for the social learning at another, higher level, thus contributing to the accumulation of cultural knowledge.

Physical Activity into Socialization: A Movement-Based Social Skills Program for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Jihyun; Vargo, Kristina K.

2017-01-01

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often exhibit deficits in social-communicative behaviors. Given the increased prevalence of children with ASD, programs designed to teach social-communicative behaviors are necessary. This article introduces a movement-based program that embeds social-skill components to improve the motor skills and…

Utilizing Teaching Interactions to Facilitate Social Skills in the Natural Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kassardjian, Alyne; Taubman, Mitchell; Rudrud, Eric; Leaf, Justin B.; Edwards, Andrew; McEachin, John; Leaf, Ron; Schulze, Kim

2013-01-01

Individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder often display deficits in social skills. While research has shown behavioral interventions to be effective in teaching and/or increasing a variety of appropriate social skills, limited research has shown generalization of these skills to the natural setting. The Teaching Interaction procedure…

Can infants' orientation to social stimuli predict later joint attention skills?

PubMed

Schietecatte, Inge; Roeyers, Herbert; Warreyn, Petra

2012-06-01

From the moment infants are born, they seem to prefer orienting to social stimuli, over objects and non-social stimuli. This preference lasts throughout adulthood and is believed to play a crucial role in social-communicative development. By following up a group of infants at the age of 6, 8, and 12 months, this study explored the role of social orienting in the early development of joint attention skills. The expected association between social orienting and joint attention was partially confirmed. Social orienting in real-life photographs of everyday situations was not related to later joint attention skills, however fixation to the eyes in a neutral face was related to response to joint attention skills, and fixation to the eyes in a dynamic video clip of a talking person was predictive of initiating joint attention skills. Several alternative interpretations of the results are discussed. ©2011 The British Psychological Society.

Social Emotional Skills and Prosocial Behaviour among 15-16-Year-Old Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Akelaitis, Arturas V.; Lisinskiene, Ausra R.

2018-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine and compare social emotional skills and prosocial behaviour among 15-16-year-old adolescent athletes and non-athletes. The measures of social emotional skills and prosocial behaviour were evaluated using Schutte Self-Report Inventory, Self-control scale, Social Skills Rating System (Student form),…

Educational interventions targeted at minors in situations of grave social vulnerability and their families

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de La Caba Collado, Mariangeles; Bartau Rojas, Isabel

2010-10-01

The aim of this article is to outline and assess an educational intervention programme targeted at improving the skills of families and the personal and social development of children living in situations of grave social vulnerability. The sample comprised 10 families during the first phase of the intervention and six during the second. The design, intervention and assessment process of this study was carried out in two phases over a period of a year and a half. For both phases, three different groups—of men/fathers, women/mothers and children—were established. Study variables (parenting skills and children's personal and social development) were evaluated before and after the intervention in every group, as well as during the entire process. The results, taking into account the improvements reported by all the participants (social workers, group monitors, fathers, mothers, children) show that inter-professional involvement and coordination at all phases of the intervention is vital in order to achieve small but significant improvements.

Adolescent Loneliness and Social Skills: Agreement and Discrepancies Between Self-, Meta-, and Peer-Evaluations.

PubMed

Lodder, G M A; Goossens, L; Scholte, R H J; Engels, R C M E; Verhagen, M

2016-12-01

Lonely adolescents report that they have poor social skills, but it is unknown whether this is due to an accurate perception of a social skills deficit, or a biased negative perception. This is an important distinction, as actual social skills deficits require different treatments than biased negative perceptions. In this study, we compared self-reported social skills evaluations with peer-reported social skills and meta-evaluations of social skills (i.e., adolescents' perceptions of how they believe their classmates evaluate them). Based on the social skills view, we expected negative relations between loneliness and these three forms of social skills evaluations. Based on the bias view, we expected lonely adolescents to have more negative self- and meta-evaluations compared to peer-evaluations of social skills. Participants were 1342 adolescents (48.64 % male, M age  = 13.95, SD = .54). All classmates rated each other in a round-robin design to obtain peer-evaluations. Self- and meta-evaluations were obtained using self-reports. Data were analyzed using polynomial regression analyses and response surface modeling. The results indicated that, when self-, peer- and meta-evaluations were similar, a greater sense of loneliness was related to poorer social skills. Loneliness was also related to larger discrepancies between self- and peer-evaluations of loneliness, but not related to the direction of these discrepancies. Thus, for some lonely adolescents, loneliness may be related to an actual social skills deficit, whereas for others a biased negative perception of one's own social skills or a mismatch with the environment may be related to their loneliness. This implies that different mechanisms may underlie loneliness, which has implications for interventions.

A Phenomenological Exploration of Children's Experiences in a Social Skills Group

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ware, Jenifer N.; Ohrt, Jonathan H.; Swank, Jacqueline M.

2012-01-01

This phenomenological study explored the perspectives of 6 children who participated in a social skills group. The children were identified as having significant social skills delays and 4 of the children had a disorder on the autism spectrum. Seven themes emerged: mutual acceptance and support, improved interpersonal skills, positive feelings…

Social Skills Deficits in a Virtual Environment Among Spanish Children With ADHD.

PubMed

García-Castellar, Rosa; Jara-Jiménez, Pilar; Sánchez-Chiva, Desirée; Mikami, Amori Y

2018-06-01

Research assessing the social skills of children with ADHD has predominantly relied upon North American samples. In addition, most existing work has been conducted using methodology that fails to use a controlled peer stimulus; such methods may be more vulnerable to cultural influence. We examined the social skills of 52 Spanish children (ages 8-12) with and without ADHD using a controlled Chat Room Task, which simulates a virtual social environment where peers' responses are held constant, so that participants' social skills may be assessed. After statistical control of typing and reading comprehension skills, Spanish children with ADHD gave fewer prosocial comments and had greater difficulty remembering central details from the conversation between the peers, relative to comparison children. The virtual Chat Room Task may be useful to assess social skills deficits using a controlled paradigm, resulting in the identification of common social deficiencies cross-culturally.

Suggestibility in neglected children: The influence of intelligence, language, and social skills.

PubMed

Benedan, Laura; Powell, Martine B; Zajac, Rachel; Lum, Jarrad A G; Snow, Pamela

2018-05-01

We administered the GSS-2, a standardised measure of suggestibility, to 5- to 12-year-old children to ascertain whether neglected children's responses to leading questions distinguish them from those of their non-neglected counterparts. Neglected children (n = 75) were more likely than an age-matched sample of non-neglected children (n = 75) to yield to leading questions, despite no difference in their ability to recall the test stimuli. Subsequent collection of individual difference data from the neglected sample revealed that this effect could not be attributed to intelligence, language ability, problem behaviours, age at onset of neglect, or time spent in out-of-home care. With respect to social skill, however, suggestibility was positively correlated with communicative skill, and marginally positively correlated with assertion and engagement. While on the surface our social skills findings seem counter-intuitive, it is possible that maltreated children with relative strengths in these areas have learned to comply with adults in their environment as a way to protect themselves or even foster belonging. Our data, while preliminary, raise interesting questions about whether targeted interventions could help these children to more actively participate in decisions about their lives. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Social Skills Deficits and Vocal Characteristics of Children with Social Phobia or Asperger's Disorder: A Comparative Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scharfstein, Lindsay A.; Beidel, Deborah C.; Sims, Valerie K.; Finnell, Laura Rendon

2011-01-01

Social skills deficits are commonly reported among children with social phobia (SP) and children with Asperger's Disorder (AD); however, a lack of direct comparison makes it unclear whether these groups, both of which endorse the presence of social anxiety, have similar or unique skills deficits. In this investigation, the social behaviors of…

Embodied conversational agents for multimodal automated social skills training in people with autism spectrum disorders.

PubMed

Tanaka, Hiroki; Negoro, Hideki; Iwasaka, Hidemi; Nakamura, Satoshi

2017-01-01

Social skills training, performed by human trainers, is a well-established method for obtaining appropriate skills in social interaction. Previous work automated the process of social skills training by developing a dialogue system that teaches social communication skills through interaction with a computer avatar. Even though previous work that simulated social skills training only considered acoustic and linguistic information, human social skills trainers take into account visual and other non-verbal features. In this paper, we create and evaluate a social skills training system that closes this gap by considering the audiovisual features of the smiling ratio and the head pose (yaw and pitch). In addition, the previous system was only tested with graduate students; in this paper, we applied our system to children or young adults with autism spectrum disorders. For our experimental evaluation, we recruited 18 members from the general population and 10 people with autism spectrum disorders and gave them our proposed multimodal system to use. An experienced human social skills trainer rated the social skills of the users. We evaluated the system's effectiveness by comparing pre- and post-training scores and identified significant improvement in their social skills using our proposed multimodal system. Computer-based social skills training is useful for people who experience social difficulties. Such a system can be used by teachers, therapists, and social skills trainers for rehabilitation and the supplemental use of human-based training anywhere and anytime.

Embodied conversational agents for multimodal automated social skills training in people with autism spectrum disorders

PubMed Central

Negoro, Hideki; Iwasaka, Hidemi; Nakamura, Satoshi

2017-01-01

Social skills training, performed by human trainers, is a well-established method for obtaining appropriate skills in social interaction. Previous work automated the process of social skills training by developing a dialogue system that teaches social communication skills through interaction with a computer avatar. Even though previous work that simulated social skills training only considered acoustic and linguistic information, human social skills trainers take into account visual and other non-verbal features. In this paper, we create and evaluate a social skills training system that closes this gap by considering the audiovisual features of the smiling ratio and the head pose (yaw and pitch). In addition, the previous system was only tested with graduate students; in this paper, we applied our system to children or young adults with autism spectrum disorders. For our experimental evaluation, we recruited 18 members from the general population and 10 people with autism spectrum disorders and gave them our proposed multimodal system to use. An experienced human social skills trainer rated the social skills of the users. We evaluated the system’s effectiveness by comparing pre- and post-training scores and identified significant improvement in their social skills using our proposed multimodal system. Computer-based social skills training is useful for people who experience social difficulties. Such a system can be used by teachers, therapists, and social skills trainers for rehabilitation and the supplemental use of human-based training anywhere and anytime. PMID:28796781

Social Skills Intervention Planning for Preschoolers: Using the SSiS-Rating Scales to Identify Target Behaviors Valued by Parents and Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frey, Jennifer R.; Elliott, Stephen N.; Kaiser, Ann P.

2014-01-01

Teachers' and parents' importance ratings of social behaviors for 95 preschoolers were examined using the "Social Skills Improvement System-Rating Scales" (Gresham & Elliott, 2008). Multivariate analyses were used to examine parents' and teachers' importance ratings at the item and subscale levels. Overall,…

Marital relationship, parenting practices, and social skills development in preschool children.

PubMed

Hosokawa, Rikuya; Katsura, Toshiki

2017-01-01

This study examined the pathways by which destructive and constructive marital conflict leading to social skills development in preschool children, are mediated through negative and positive parenting practices. Mothers of 2931 Japanese children, aged 5-6 years, completed self-report questionnaires regarding their marital relationship (the Quality of co-parental communication scale) and parental practices (the Alabama parenting questionnaire). The children's teachers evaluated their social skills using the Social skills scale. Path analyses revealed significant direct paths from destructive marital conflict to negative parenting practices and lower scores on the self-control component of social skills. In addition, negative parenting practices mediated the relationship between destructive marital conflict and lower scores on cooperation, self-control, and assertion. Our analyses also revealed significant direct paths from constructive marital conflict to positive parenting practices, and higher scores on cooperation and assertion. Positive parenting practices mediated the relationship between constructive marital conflict and higher scores on self-control and assertion. These findings suggest that destructive and constructive marital conflict may directly and indirectly influence children's social skills development through the mediation of parenting practices.

Social Skills Deficits in Learning Disabilities: The Psychiatric Comorbidity Hypothesis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

San Miguel, Stephanie K.; And Others

1996-01-01

This article explores the hypothesis that social skill deficits among children with learning disabilities are associated with high rates of undetected psychiatric diagnoses. The maladaptive social skills patterns of children with specific subtypes of learning disabilities appear to mimic the symptom patterns of children with attention deficit…

Social skills interventions for the autism spectrum: essential ingredients and a model curriculum.

PubMed

Krasny, Lori; Williams, Brenda J; Provencal, Sherri; Ozonoff, Sally

2003-01-01

This article outlines the ingredients the authors feel are critical to making social skills interventions successful for children with autism spectrum disorders. The authors described basic principles for teaching social skills that capitalize on the strengths of such children, while specifically addressing their deficits. The authors applied these widely used principles to group social skills intervention. In particular, social skills groups for children with ASD need to break down complex social behaviors into concrete steps and rules that can be memorized and practiced in a variety of settings. Abstract concepts must be made concrete through a variety of visual, tangible, "hands-on" activities that make socialization fun. Visual structure and predictable routines are essential. Also critical to the success of social skills intervention are instruction and activities that provide necessary support for the language abilities of the participants. A variety of learning opportunities must be used to teach the goals and skills most relevant to children with ASD. These skills must be integrated as intervention progresses. Furthermore, interactions that require the children to focus on peers create a positive social group culture. Within this culture and environment, self-awareness and positive self-esteem can be fostered. A behavior plan that specifies individual goals for group members and a specific system for delivering rewards should be included. Other important ingredients include generalization, which is encouraged through community outings, skill practice in more naturalistic settings, and collaboration with parents and teachers to work on skills outside the group intervention. Weekly therapy does little to change basic deficits of ASD unless there is daily practice and reinforcement of the skills being learned in more natural situations. The authors hope that outlining these principles and specific techniques will encourage more clinicians to offer social

Factor analysis of social skills inventory responses of Italians and Americans.

PubMed

Galeazzi, Aldo; Franceschina, Emilio; Holmes, George R

2002-06-01

The Social Skills Inventory is a 90-item self-report procedure designed to measure social and communication skills. The inventory measures six dimensions, namely, Emotional Expressivity, Emotional Sensitivity, Emotional Control, Social Expressivity, Social Sensitivity, and Social Control. The Italian version was administered in several cities in Northern Italy to 500 Italian participants ranging in age from 15 to 59 years. Factor analysis appears to confirm the adequacy of the inventory for the Italian adult population. Results indicate strong similarities between the Italian and American populations with respect to the measure of social skills. Indexes of internal reliability and test-retest reliability are good for almost all subscales of the inventory, which should encourage the use of this inventory with Italian samples.

Developing Youth's Cultural and Social Skills through a Social-Virtual Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eteokleous, Nikleia

2011-01-01

Purpose: This study seeks to evaluate the application of a social-virtual curriculum delivered through in-classroom and web-based activities, aiming to develop youth's social-cultural skills, cultural competency and multicultural awareness. Specifically, the study evaluates the overall impact of the curriculum to the participating youth's…

Testing the social dog hypothesis: are dogs also more skilled than chimpanzees in non-communicative social tasks?

PubMed

Wobber, Victoria; Hare, Brian

2009-07-01

Relative to non-human primates, domestic dogs possess a number of social skills that seem exceptional-particularly in solving problems involving cooperation and communication with humans. However, the degree to which dogs' unusual skills are contextually specialized is still unclear. Here, we presented dogs with a social problem that did not require them to use cooperative-communicative cues and compared their performance to that of chimpanzees to assess the extent of dogs' capabilities relative to those of non-human primates. We tested the abilities of dogs and chimpanzees to inhibit previously learned responses by using a social and a non-social version of a reversal learning task. In contrast to previous findings in cooperative-communicative social tasks, dogs were not more skilled on the social task than the non-social task, while chimpanzees were significantly better in the social paradigm. Chimpanzees were able to inhibit their prior learning better and more quickly in the social paradigm than they were in the non-social paradigm, while dogs took more time to inhibit what they had learned in both versions of the task. These results suggest that the dogs' sophisticated social skills in using human social cues may be relatively specialized as a result of domestication.

Social stories: mechanisms of effectiveness in increasing game play skills in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder using a pretest posttest repeated measures randomized control group design.

PubMed

Quirmbach, Linda M; Lincoln, Alan J; Feinberg-Gizzo, Monica J; Ingersoll, Brooke R; Andrews, Siri M

2009-02-01

An increasing body of literature has indicated that social stories are an effective way to teach individuals diagnosed with autism appropriate social behavior. This study compared two formats of a social story targeting the improvement of social skills during game play using a pretest posttest repeated measures randomized control group design. A total of 45 children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) ages 7-14 were randomly assigned to standard, directive, or control story conditions. Results demonstrated that the standard and directive story formats were equally as effective in eliciting, generalizing and maintaining the targeted social skills in participants who had prior game play experience and Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI) scores from the WISC-IV intelligence test in the borderline range or above.

School-Based Social Skills Training for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Radley, Keith C.; McHugh, Melissa B.; Taber, Traci; Battaglia, Allison A.; Ford, W. Blake

2017-01-01

The present study evaluated the effects of the Superheroes Social Skills program, a social skills curriculum for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Previous research has found the curriculum to improve social engagements of children with ASD during unstructured recess periods but has been limited in research design and lack of…

Raise Your Child's Social IQ: Stepping Stones to People Skills for Kids.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohen, Cathi

Noting that children with poor peer relationships are at risk for later problems and that social skills can improve with coaching, this book shows parents how they can teach their children a variety of social skills. The book is divided into 10 chapters, each addressing a particular skill or set of skills. Each chapter includes goals that equip…

A controlled comparison of the effects of social skills training and remedial drama on the conversational skills of chronic schizophrenic inpatients.

PubMed

Spencer, P G; Gillespie, C R; Ekisa, E G

1983-08-01

This study compared the effects of social-skills training, remedial drama and group discussion on the conversation skills of chronic schizophrenic patients. After 16 one-hour treatment sessions only the social-skills training resulted in significant improvement, which was maintained at two-month follow-up. Although there was little evidence to support generalisation, the results are seen as indicating the usefulness of social-skills training in improving the performance level of chronic schizophrenic inpatients and in maintaining their social functioning. The implications for future rehabilitation practice are discussed.

The relationship between chronic otitis media-induced hearing loss and the acquisition of social skills.

PubMed

Bidadi, Sanam; Nejadkazem, Mohammad; Naderpour, Masoud

2008-11-01

To investigate the effects of hearing loss caused by chronic otitis media (COM) on acquiring social skills. A case-control study of 90 patients, including patients with COM, age range 15-30 years, was conducted in the otorhinolaryngology ward of Tabriz University Hospital. Social skills were assessed with a social skills questionnaire. Social skill scores were found to be lower in hearing-impaired COM patients compared with the control group (P < 0.001). Social skill disabilities in patients with bilateral COM were more severe than in patients with unilateral COM and the controls (P < 0.001). Correlation between social skills score and degree of hearing loss was significantly negative (P = 0.014, rho = -0.314). These data indicate an inverse relationship between hearing loss and social skills. Social skills and educational level of COM patients are affected because of hearing impairment. This study suggests that COM has effects on social development and education.

Predicting treatment success in social skills training for adolescents with autism spectrum disorders: the UCLA Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills.

PubMed

Chang, Ya-Chih; Laugeson, Elizabeth A; Gantman, Alexander; Ellingsen, Ruth; Frankel, Fred; Dillon, Ashley R

2014-05-01

This study seeks to examine the predictors of positive social skills outcomes from the University of California, Los Angeles Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills, an evidence-based parent-assisted social skills program for high-functioning middle school and high school adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. The results revealed that adolescents with higher parent-reported baseline social skills and lower self-reported perceived social functioning demonstrated greater improvement in social skills following the intervention.

A contextual approach to social skills assessment in the peer group: who is the best judge?

PubMed

Kwon, Kyongboon; Kim, Elizabeth Moorman; Sheridan, Susan M

2012-09-01

Using a contextual approach to social skills assessment in the peer group, this study examined the criterion-related validity of contextually relevant social skills and the incremental validity of peers and teachers as judges of children's social skills. Study participants included 342 (180 male and 162 female) students and their classroom teachers (N = 22) from rural communities. As expected, contextually relevant social skills were significantly related to a variety of social status indicators (i.e., likability, peer- and teacher-assessed popularity, reciprocated friendships, clique centrality) and positive school functioning (i.e., school liking and academic competence). Peer-assessed social skills, not teacher-assessed social skills, demonstrated consistent incremental validity in predicting various indicators of social status outcomes; peer- and teacher-assessed social skills alike showed incremental validity in predicting positive school functioning. The relation between contextually relevant social skills and study outcomes did not vary by child gender. Findings are discussed in terms of the significance of peers in the assessment of children's social skills in the peer group as well as the usefulness of a contextual approach to social skills assessment.

Social media use profile, social skills, and nurse-patient interaction among Registered Nurses in tertiary hospitals: A structural equation model analysis.

PubMed

Mariano, Micah Celine O; Maniego, John Christian M; Manila, Hariette Lou Marie D; Mapanoo, Ram Cedrick C; Maquiran, Kerwin Miguel A; Macindo, John Rey B; Tejero, Lourdes Marie S; Torres, Gian Carlo S

2018-04-01

Social media has become increasingly important over the past decades and has been integrated in various environments, including the healthcare setting. Yet, the influence of social media use on the social skills and nurse-patient interaction of nurses is an area in nursing that requires further studies. This study determined the interrelationships among social media use profile, social skills, and nurse-patient interaction of Registered Nurses in tertiary hospitals. Employing structural equation modeling, a descriptive-correlational study was conducted among 212 consecutively-selected nurses from two tertiary hospitals. Consenting respondents completed a two-part survey composed of the respondent profile sheet and the Social Skills Inventory. The respondent profile sheet assessed demographic profile and social media use profile in terms of the mode, frequency, and duration of utilization. Three trained team members observed each nurse-patient dyad and completed the Nurse-Patient Bonding Instrument. A good fit model illustrated the negative effects of frequent social media use to patient openness (β = -0.18, p < 0.05) and engagement (β = -0.11, p ≤ 0.05). Longer use of social media on a daily basis, however, positively affected both dimensions of social skills. Accessing social media platforms using non-handheld devices showed the most influential positive effects to social skills and nurse-patient interaction. Additionally, although verbal social skills positively affected most dimensions of nurse-patient interaction, non-verbal social skills negatively influenced patient engagement (β = -0.19, p = 0.019) and nurse openness (β = -0.38, p ≤ 0.05). The structural model illustrates the effects of using social media on the social skills and nurse-patient interaction of nurses and emphasizes the need for implementing institutional policies on the judicious use and application of social media in the workplace. Further, social

Promoting Children's Social-Emotional Skills in Preschool Can Enhance Academic and Behavioral Functioning in Kindergarten: Findings from Head Start REDI

PubMed Central

Nix, Robert L.; Bierman, Karen L.; Domitrovich, Celene E.; Gill, Sukhdeep

2013-01-01

This study examined processes of change associated with the positive preschool and kindergarten outcomes of children who received the Head Start REDI intervention, compared to “usual practice” Head Start. In a large-scale randomized-controlled trial (N = 356 children, 42% African American or Latino, all from low-income families), this study tests the logic model that improving preschool social-emotional skills (e.g., emotion understanding, social problem solving, and positive social behavior) as well as language/emergent literacy skills will promote cross-domain academic and behavioral adjustment after children transition into kindergarten. Validating this logic model, the present study finds that intervention effects on three important kindergarten outcomes (e.g., reading achievement, learning engagement, and positive social behavior) were mediated by preschool gains in the proximal social-emotional and language/emergent literacy skills targeted by the REDI intervention. Importantly, preschool gains in social-emotional skills made unique contributions to kindergarten outcomes in reading achievement and learning engagement, even after accounting for the concurrent preschool gains in vocabulary and emergent literacy skills. These findings highlight the importance of fostering at-risk children's social-emotional skills during preschool as a means of promoting school readiness. The REDI (Research-Based, Developmentally-Informed) enrichment intervention was designed to complement and strengthen the impact of existing Head Start programs in the dual domains of language/emergent literacy skills and social-emotional competencies. REDI was one of several projects funded by the Interagency School Readiness Consortium, a partnership of four federal agencies (the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Administration for Children and Families, the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the Department of Health and Human Services, and the

Developing Preschoolers' Social Skills through Cross-Cultural Physical Education Intervention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tsangaridou, Niki; Zachopoulou, Evridiki; Liukkonen, Jarmo; Gråstén, Arto; Kokkonen, Marja

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes in children's social skills after their participation in a physical education programme named ESPEC ("Early Steps" Physical Education Curriculum). The evaluators of the children's social skills were the trained educators who implemented the curriculum as well as parents of the…

The assessment of social skills deficits in the elderly.

PubMed

Furnham, A; Pendleton, D

1983-01-01

This paper tested the hypothesis that a sample of elderly people compared to a matched sample of younger people reports an increase in difficulty and social anxiety in dealing with a wide range of everyday social situations. The literature on assertiveness and social skills training with the elderly was first reviewed. Then an assertiveness and social difficulty scale was administered to a group of eighty participants divided by age and sex. It was found that older people experienced less discomfort in situations requiring assertiveness, yet were less likely to respond assertively. Older people reported higher incidence of social anxiety across forty everyday situations. In general females reported more difficulty than males, though there were no interaction effects. The results are discussed in terms of the assessment and training of social skills in the elderly.

Social-cognitive functioning and social skills in patients with early treated phenylketonuria: a PKU-COBESO study.

PubMed

Jahja, Rianne; van Spronsen, Francjan J; de Sonneville, Leo M J; van der Meere, Jaap J; Bosch, Annet M; Hollak, Carla E M; Rubio-Gozalbo, M Estela; Brouwers, Martijn C G J; Hofstede, Floris C; de Vries, Maaike C; Janssen, Mirian C H; van der Ploeg, Ans T; Langendonk, Janneke G; Huijbregts, Stephan C J

2016-05-01

Early treatment of phenylketonuria (ET-PKU) prevents mental retardation, but many patients still show cognitive and mood problems. In this study, it was investigated whether ET-PKU-patients have specific phenylalanine (Phe-)related problems with respect to social-cognitive functioning and social skills. Ninety five PKU-patients (mean age 21.6 ± 10.2 years) and 95 healthy controls (mean age 19.6 ± 8.7 years) were compared on performance of computerized and paper-and-pencil tasks measuring social-cognitive abilities and on parent- and self-reported social skills, using multivariate analyses of variance, and controlling for general cognitive ability (IQ-estimate). Further comparisons were made between patients using tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4, N = 30) and patients not using BH4. Associations with Phe-levels on the day of testing, during childhood, during adolescence and throughout life were examined. PKU-patients showed poorer social-cognitive functioning and reportedly had poorer social skills than controls (regardless of general cognitive abilities). Quality of social-cognitive functioning was negatively related to recent Phe-levels and Phe-levels between 8 and 12 years for adolescents with PKU. Quality of social skills was negatively related to lifetime phenylalanine levels in adult patients, and specifically to Phe-levels between 0 and 7, and between 8 and 12 years. There were no differences with respect to social outcome measures between the BH4 and non-BH4 groups. PKU-patients have Phe-related difficulties with social-cognitive functioning and social skills. Problems seem to be more evident among adolescents and adults with PKU. High Phe-levels during childhood and early adolescence seem to be of greater influence than current and recent Phe-levels for these patients.

Evaluating the Psychometric Quality of Social Skills Measures: A Systematic Review

PubMed Central

Brown, Ted; Bourke-Taylor, Helen; Doma, Kenji; Leicht, Anthony

2015-01-01

Introduction Impairments in social functioning are associated with an array of adverse outcomes. Social skills measures are commonly used by health professionals to assess and plan the treatment of social skills difficulties. There is a need to comprehensively evaluate the quality of psychometric properties reported across these measures to guide assessment and treatment planning. Objective To conduct a systematic review of the literature on the psychometric properties of social skills and behaviours measures for both children and adults. Methods A systematic search was performed using four electronic databases: CINAHL, PsycINFO, Embase and Pubmed; the Health and Psychosocial Instruments database; and grey literature using PsycExtra and Google Scholar. The psychometric properties of the social skills measures were evaluated against the COSMIN taxonomy of measurement properties using pre-set psychometric criteria. Results Thirty-Six studies and nine manuals were included to assess the psychometric properties of thirteen social skills measures that met the inclusion criteria. Most measures obtained excellent overall methodological quality scores for internal consistency and reliability. However, eight measures did not report measurement error, nine measures did not report cross-cultural validity and eleven measures did not report criterion validity. Conclusions The overall quality of the psychometric properties of most measures was satisfactory. The SSBS-2, HCSBS and PKBS-2 were the three measures with the most robust evidence of sound psychometric quality in at least seven of the eight psychometric properties that were appraised. A universal working definition of social functioning as an overarching construct is recommended. There is a need for ongoing research in the area of the psychometric properties of social skills and behaviours instruments. PMID:26151362

Evaluating the Psychometric Quality of Social Skills Measures: A Systematic Review.

PubMed

Cordier, Reinie; Speyer, Renée; Chen, Yu-Wei; Wilkes-Gillan, Sarah; Brown, Ted; Bourke-Taylor, Helen; Doma, Kenji; Leicht, Anthony

2015-01-01

Impairments in social functioning are associated with an array of adverse outcomes. Social skills measures are commonly used by health professionals to assess and plan the treatment of social skills difficulties. There is a need to comprehensively evaluate the quality of psychometric properties reported across these measures to guide assessment and treatment planning. To conduct a systematic review of the literature on the psychometric properties of social skills and behaviours measures for both children and adults. A systematic search was performed using four electronic databases: CINAHL, PsycINFO, Embase and Pubmed; the Health and Psychosocial Instruments database; and grey literature using PsycExtra and Google Scholar. The psychometric properties of the social skills measures were evaluated against the COSMIN taxonomy of measurement properties using pre-set psychometric criteria. Thirty-Six studies and nine manuals were included to assess the psychometric properties of thirteen social skills measures that met the inclusion criteria. Most measures obtained excellent overall methodological quality scores for internal consistency and reliability. However, eight measures did not report measurement error, nine measures did not report cross-cultural validity and eleven measures did not report criterion validity. The overall quality of the psychometric properties of most measures was satisfactory. The SSBS-2, HCSBS and PKBS-2 were the three measures with the most robust evidence of sound psychometric quality in at least seven of the eight psychometric properties that were appraised. A universal working definition of social functioning as an overarching construct is recommended. There is a need for ongoing research in the area of the psychometric properties of social skills and behaviours instruments.

Relationships between social skills and self-esteem in nurses: a questionnaire study.

PubMed

Losa-Iglesias, Marta Elena; López López, Daniel; Rodriguez Vazquez, Rocío; Becerro de Bengoa-Vallejo, Ricardo

2017-12-01

Our study attempts to evaluate whether nurses' social skills are related to their self-concept and self-esteem. A descriptive survey study was developed to 464 nurses who had worked for a minimum of one year in adult or pediatric services. The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE) and the Scale of Social Skills (SSS) by Gismero were used to measure nurses' self-esteem and social skills, respectively. Evaluation of self-esteem and social skills revealed no significant associations between sex and specific nursing speciality, (p > .05). Significant differences were observed based on the marital status for RSE and SSS Factor 1 (RSE, p = .013; SSS-F1, p = .033). Correlation and regression analyses demonstrated a significant correlation between nurse self-esteem and some social skills factors. This study shows that there exists a relationship between higher self-esteem and self-concept among nurses and this issue can affect effective communication with patients.

School readiness of children with language impairment: predicting literacy skills from pre-literacy and social-behavioural dimensions.

PubMed

Pentimonti, Jill M; Murphy, Kimberly A; Justice, Laura M; Logan, Jessica A R; Kaderavek, Joan N

2016-03-01

School readiness generally captures the notion that children do best when they arrive at formal schooling with a certain threshold of skill that will help them thrive in the classroom's academic and social milieu. To examine the dimensionality of the construct of school readiness among children with language impairment (LI), as well as the extent to which these dimensions relate to children's end-of-kindergarten literacy skills. Participants were 136 preschool-aged children with LI. Children were assessed on measures of pre-literacy, social, and behavioural skills in preschool and reading and spelling in kindergarten. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that school readiness for this sample of children with LI is best characterized as two dimensions: pre-literacy and socio-emotional. Of the two dimensions, pre-literacy readiness was predictive of children's future performance in reading and spelling. The results further our theoretical understanding of the dimensions of school readiness, as well as our knowledge of how these skills are related among children with LI. Identifying domain-specific readiness skills that are predictive of kindergarten success can help to identify means of early assessment and targets for speech-language intervention. © 2015 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

Development of the Contextual Assessment of Social Skills (CASS): a role play measure of social skill for individuals with high-functioning autism.

PubMed

Ratto, Allison B; Turner-Brown, Lauren; Rupp, Betty M; Mesibov, Gary B; Penn, David L

2011-09-01

This study piloted a role play assessment of conversational skills for adolescents and young adults with high-functioning autism/Asperger syndrome (HFA/AS). Participants completed two semi-structured role plays, in which social context was manipulated by changing the confederate's level of interest in the conversation. Participants' social behavior was rated via a behavioral coding system, and performance was compared across contexts and groups. An interaction effect was found for several items, whereby control participants showed significant change across context, while participants with HFA/AS showed little or no change. Total change across contexts was significantly correlated with related social constructs and significantly predicted ASD. The findings are discussed in terms of the potential utility of the CASS in the evaluation of social skill.

An Observation Tool for Monitoring Social Skill Implementation in Contextually Relevant Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morgan, Joseph John; Hsiao, Yun-Ju; Dobbins, Nicole; Brown, Nancy B.; Lyons, Catherine

2015-01-01

Skills related to social-emotional learning (SEL) are essential for college and career readiness. Failure to use appropriate skills for SEL in school is often linked to several negative academic outcomes, including rejection by school community members, academic deficits, and higher rates of problematic behavior. Social skills interventions are…

Social validation and training of emergency fire safety skills for potential injury prevention and life saving.

PubMed Central

Jones, R T; Kazdin, A E; Haney, J I

1981-01-01

A multifaceted behavioral program designed to teach emergency fire escape procedures to children was evaluated in a multiple-baseline design. Five children were trained to respond correctly to nine home emergency fire situations under simulated conditions. The situations and responses focused upon in training were identified by a social validation procedure involving consultation with several safety agencies, including the direct input of firefighters. Training, carried out in simulated bedrooms at school, resulted in significant improvements in both overt behavior and self-report of fire safety skills. The gains were maintained at a post-check assessment 2 weeks after training had been terminated. The results are discussed in relation both to the importance of social validation of targets and outcomes and the implications for further research in assessing and developing emergency response skills. PMID:7298537

Interpersonal factors contributing to the stigma of schizophrenia: social skills, perceived attractiveness, and symptoms.

PubMed

Penn, D L; Kohlmaier, J R; Corrigan, P W

2000-09-29

This study investigated the interpersonal factors (i.e., social skills, symptoms, perceived physical attractiveness) which are related to the stigma of schizophrenia. Social skills performance was assessed for 39 individuals with schizophrenia who participated in two role-plays with a confederate. Social skills ratings comprised 'overall social skill', 'meshing', 'clarity', and 'fluency' of speech, 'gaze', 'pleasantness' of conversation, 'involvement' in conversation, 'number of questions asked' during conversation, and 'perceived strangeness'. Symptomatology was assessed with the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale. Ratings of perceived physical attractiveness were obtained by pausing the videotaped role-plays after the first 2s of the interaction. Ratings of 'social distance', based on an independent sample who observed the role-plays, were used as a proxy measure of stigma. The results showed that social distance was best statistically predicted by perceived strangeness, which in turn, was best statistically predicted by ratings of overall social skill. Negative symptoms appeared to have a more robust association with desired social distance than positive symptoms. Interpersonal factors, such as overall social skill, negative symptoms, and perceived strangeness, may contribute to stigma.

A Programmatic Description of a Social Skills Group for Young Children with Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leaf, Justin B.; Dotson, Wesley H.; Oppenheim-Leaf, Misty L.; Sherman, James A.; Sheldon, Jan B.

2012-01-01

Deficits in social skills are a common problem for children with autism. One method of developing appropriate social skills in children with autism has been group instruction. To date, however, group instruction has produced mixed results. The purpose of this article is to describe a promising method of teaching social skills to children in small…

Using Reading Circles Strategy for Developing Preparatory Students' Critical Reading Skills and Social Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abdelrasoul, Mohamed Mahmoud Ibrahim

2014-01-01

The present study aimed at developing the necessary critical reading skills and social skills of the Egyptian EFL second year preparatory school students, through a proposed program based on using reading circles strategy. The study participants were 44 students from Sohag Experimental Preparatory School in Sohag Governorate. Instruments of the…

Warming the Emotional Climate of the Classroom: Can Teachers' Social-Emotional Skills Change?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harvey, Shane T.; Evans, Ian M.; Hill, Rhys V. J.; Henricksen, Annette; Bimler, David

2016-01-01

Emotional skills underpin what teachers do. However, relatively few studies have investigated whether these skills can be formally learnt by teachers and the benefits enhancing teachers' social-emotional skills may have on students. The current research aimed to develop an intervention to improve teachers' social-emotional skills in the classroom…

Developing Social Skills in Children Who Have Disabilities through the Use of Social Stories and Visual Supports

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fisher, Kristi; Haufe, Theresa

2009-01-01

The purpose of this action research project was to improve the social skills of eight preschool students and four first grade and second grade students through the use of Social Stories and visual supports to create a more positive learning environment. The teacher researchers wanted to increase the social skills of students who had been diagnosed…

Reliability of the social skills rating system in a group of Iranian children.

PubMed

Shahim, S

2001-12-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate reliability of the Social Skills Rating Systems of Gresham and Elliott for use in Iran. The sample consisted of 304 students aged 6 to 12 years, selected from the elementary schools in Shiraz, Iran. Parents' and teachers' ratings of social skills and behavioural problems and self-rating of social skills were applied in this study. Pearson correlations between parents' and teachers' ratings were low to moderate. Correlations between social skills subdomains and behavioural problems subdomains were low to high. Cronbach coefficients alpha were satisfactory for the two subdomains.

Relations among motor, social, and cognitive skills in pre-kindergarten children with developmental disabilities.

PubMed

Kim, Helyn; Carlson, Abby G; Curby, Timothy W; Winsler, Adam

2016-01-01

Despite the comorbidity between motor difficulties and certain disabilities, limited research has examined links between early motor, cognitive, and social skills in preschool-aged children with developmental disabilities. The present study examined the relative contributions of gross motor and fine motor skills to the prediction of improvements in children's cognitive and social skills among 2,027 pre-kindergarten children with developmental disabilities, including specific learning disorder, speech/language impairment, intellectual disability, and autism spectrum disorder. Results indicated that for pre-kindergarten children with developmental disabilities, fine motor skills, but not gross motor skills, were predictive of improvements in cognitive and social skills, even after controlling for demographic information and initial skill levels. Moreover, depending on the type of developmental disability, the pattern of prediction of gross motor and fine motor skills to improvements in children's cognitive and social skills differed. Implications are discussed. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Psychometric properties of a Multidimensional Scale of Social Expression to assess social skills in the Internet context].

PubMed

Carballo, José L; Pérez-Jover, Ma Virtudes; Espada, José P; Orgilés, Mireia; Piqueras, José Antonio

2012-02-01

The increase in the use of New Technologies in social relationships could be generating a new paradigm in social skills. Valid and reliable instruments to assess these changes are needed. The aim of this study is to analyze the psychometric properties of the Multidimensional Scale of Social Expression (EMES) in the assessment of social skills on the Internet and Social Networks. A total of 413 college students from the province of Alicante participated on this study. The scale was applied according to two contexts: Real and Internet/Virtual. High internal consistency was shown. The 12-factor structure found for the Virtual Context scale is similar to that of the original study. The scale had shown to be a good predictor of hours of Internet use. In conclusion, EMES-C is useful for assessing real context and Internet context social skills.

Effects of a Multimedia Social Skills Program in Increasing Social Responses and Initiations of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Block, Heidi M.; Radley, Keith C.; Jenson, William R.; Clark, Elaine; O'Neill, Robert E.

2015-01-01

The current study evaluated the effectiveness of Superheroes Social Skills, a multimedia social skills package, in improving social responsiveness and social initiation behaviors of four elementary school children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The program was implemented in a public school setting in the southwestern United States for…

Relations of mother's sense of coherence and childrearing style with child's social skills in preschoolers.

PubMed

Hosokawa, Rikuya; Katsura, Toshiki; Shizawa, Miho

2017-01-01

We examined the relationships between mothers' sense of coherence (SOC) and their child's social skills development among preschool children, and how this relationship is mediated by mother's childrearing style. Mothers of 1341 Japanese children, aged 4-5 years, completed a self-report questionnaire on their SOC and childrearing style. The children's teachers evaluated their social skills using the social skills scale (SSS), which comprises three factors: cooperation, self-control, and assertion. Path analyses revealed that the mother's childrearing mediated the positive relationship between mother's SOC and the cooperation, self-control, and assertiveness aspects of children's social skills. Additionally, there was a significant direct path from mother's SOC to the self-control component of social skills. These findings suggest that mother's SOC may directly as well as indirectly influence children's social skills development through the mediating effect of childrearing. The results offer preliminary evidence that focusing on support to improve mothers' SOC may be an efficient and effective strategy for improving children's social skills development.

Programming generalization of social skills in preschool children with hearing impairments.

PubMed

Ducharme, D E; Holborn, S W

1997-01-01

The efficacy of a social skills training package in producing stimulus generalization, both with and without the systematic application of generalization programming techniques, was evaluated with 5 preschool children with hearing impairments. The evaluation was conducted within a multiple baseline design. Generalization probes were conducted daily. The social skills training package was implemented in a training setting and produced high, stable rates of social interaction in that setting. However, generalization of the social skills to new teachers, peers, and play activities did not occur until generalization programming strategies were applied in the original training setting. Using sufficient stimulus exemplars and contacting natural consequences appeared to be the key strategies for promoting generalization of social interaction. In addition, the use of supplementary procedures (e.g., a fluency criterion and treatment integrity checks) may have contributed to stimulus generalization.

Programming generalization of social skills in preschool children with hearing impairments.

PubMed Central

Ducharme, D E; Holborn, S W

1997-01-01

The efficacy of a social skills training package in producing stimulus generalization, both with and without the systematic application of generalization programming techniques, was evaluated with 5 preschool children with hearing impairments. The evaluation was conducted within a multiple baseline design. Generalization probes were conducted daily. The social skills training package was implemented in a training setting and produced high, stable rates of social interaction in that setting. However, generalization of the social skills to new teachers, peers, and play activities did not occur until generalization programming strategies were applied in the original training setting. Using sufficient stimulus exemplars and contacting natural consequences appeared to be the key strategies for promoting generalization of social interaction. In addition, the use of supplementary procedures (e.g., a fluency criterion and treatment integrity checks) may have contributed to stimulus generalization. PMID:9433789

Social Skills Training and ADHD-What Works?

PubMed

Mikami, Amori Yee; Smit, Sophie; Khalis, Adri

2017-10-30

Many children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have difficulties in their social skills and peer relationships. Because social problems exacerbate later maladjustment in ADHD populations, it is important to address this serious impairment. Although social skills training (SST) is a common intervention approach, evidence to date suggests that SST has limited efficacy, at least when provided in traditional, clinic-based settings. The current review summarizes recent advances to traditional SST approaches that may potentially enhance their efficacy. We identify two promising directions in which SST may be modified to make it more efficacious for ADHD populations. The first direction involves providing increased reinforcement and reminders of appropriate social behavior at the point of performance to youth with ADHD (e.g., in vivo, in real life peer situations as opposed to in the clinic). We note the importance of ensuring that youth with ADHD are receptive to such reminders. The second direction involves encouraging peers to be more socially accepting and inclusive of youth with ADHD. This avenue has been understudied in the literature to date. SST for children and adolescents with ADHD may be enhanced by providing more in vivo reminders and feedback at the point of performance and by making efforts to alter peers' impressions about youth with ADHD.

Relationships Between Gross Motor Skills and Social Function in Young Boys With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

PubMed

Holloway, Jamie M; Long, Toby M; Biasini, Fred

2018-05-02

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between gross motor skills and social function in young boys with autism spectrum disorder. Twenty-one children with autism spectrum disorder participated in the study. The Peabody Developmental Motor Scales Second Edition and the Miller Function and Participation Scales were used to assess gross motor skills. The Social Skills Improvement System Rating Scales was used to assess social function. Moderately high correlations were found between overall gross motor and social skills (r = 0.644) and between the core stability motor subtest and overall social skills (r = -0.672). Specific motor impairments in stability, motor accuracy, and object manipulation scores were predictive of social function. This study suggests that motor skills and social function are related in young boys with autism. Implications for physical therapy intervention are also discussed.

Sexual Risk Among African American Women: Psychological Factors and the Mediating Role of Social Skills

PubMed Central

Curran, Timothy M.; Monahan, Jennifer L.; Samp, Jennifer A.; Coles, Valerie B.; DiClemente, Ralph J.; Sales, Jessica

2016-01-01

Prior research demonstrates a positive association between mental health problems and sexual risk for African American women. Using the social skills deficit hypothesis, we proposed that social skills mediate this relationship. African American women (n = 557, M age = 20.58) completed measures of depression, stress, emotional dysregulation, sexual risk behaviors, and perceptions of their social skills with their primary sexual partner. Social skills mediated the link between the mental health assessments and a composite sexual risk index. Theoretical implications of extending the social skill deficit hypothesis are discussed as well as implications for interventions. PMID:28490827

Emotion Discourse, Social Cognition, and Social Skills in Children with and without Developmental Delays

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fenning, Rachel M.; Baker, Bruce L.; Juvonen, Jaana

2011-01-01

This study examined parent-child emotion discourse, children's independent social information processing, and social skills outcomes in 146 families of 8-year-olds with and without developmental delays. Children's emergent social-cognitive understanding (internal state understanding, perspective taking, and causal reasoning and problem solving)…

Financial Management and Job Social Skills Training Components in a Summer Business Institute

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Donohue, Brad; Conway, Debbie; Beisecker, Monica; Murphy, Heather; Farley, Alisha; Waite, Melissa; Gugino, Kristin; Knatz, Danielle; Lopez-Frank, Carolina; Burns, Jack; Madison, Suzanne; Shorty, Carrie

2005-01-01

Ninety-two adolescents, predominantly ethnic minority high school students, participated in a structured Summer Business Institute (SBI). Participating youth were randomly assigned to receive either job social skills or financial management skills training components. Students who additionally received the job social skills training component were…

Teaching Online Social Skills to Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morgan, Joseph John; Higgins, Kyle; Miller, Susan; Pierce, Thomas B.; Boone, Randall; Tandy, Richard

2016-01-01

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBDs) often lack appropriate social skills. Participation in direct and explicit instruction related to social skills is common in their educational programming. For these interventions to be effective, it is important that students have the opportunity to apply them in the natural environment.…

Use of Superheroes Social Skills with Middle School-Age Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, Ashley N.; Radley, Keith C.; Helbig, Kate A.

2018-01-01

The current study evaluated use of the Superheroes Social Skills program as a means of increasing social skill accuracy in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. Participants included four Caucasian male students that were eligible for special education services within the autism category. Social skills training was presented twice weekly for…

Social Anxiety Disorder and Social Skills: A Critical Review of the Literature

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Angelico, Antonio Paulo; Crippa, Jose Alexandre S.; Loureiro, Sonia Regina

2013-01-01

The objective of this article is to present a critical analysis of the research outlines used in empirical studies published between the years 2000 and March of 2007 about social anxiety disorder and its associations with social skills. Seventeen papers were identified and grouped into two classes for analysis, namely: Characterization of Social…

Evidence-Based Social Skills Training for Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders: The UCLA PEERS Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Laugeson, Elizabeth A.; Frankel, Fred; Gantman, Alexander; Dillon, Ashley R.; Mogil, Catherine

2012-01-01

The present study examines the efficacy and durability of the PEERS Program, a parent-assisted social skills group intervention for high-functioning adolescents with ASD. Results indicate that teens receiving PEERS significantly improved their social skills knowledge, social responsiveness, and overall social skills in the areas of social…

The Association between Preschool Children's Social Functioning and Their Emergent Academic Skills.

PubMed

Arnold, David H; Kupersmidt, Janis B; Voegler-Lee, Mary Ellen; Marshall, Nastassja

2012-01-01

This study examined the relationship between social functioning and emergent academic development in a sample of 467 preschool children (M = 55.9 months old, SD = 3.8). Teachers reported on children's aggression, attention problems, and prosocial skills. Preliteracy, language, and early mathematics skills were assessed with standardized tests. Better social functioning was associated with stronger academic development. Attention problems were related to poorer academic development controlling for aggression and social skills, pointing to the importance of attention in these relations. Children's social skills were related to academic development controlling for attention and aggression problems, consistent with models suggesting that children's social strengths and difficulties are independently related to their academic development. Support was not found for the hypothesis that these relationships would be stronger in boys than in girls. Some relationships were stronger in African American than Caucasian children. Children's self-reported feelings about school moderated several relationships, consistent with the idea that positive feelings about school may be a protective factor against co-occurring academic and social problems.

Educators' Social and Emotional Skills Vital to Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Stephanie M.; Bouffard, Suzanne M.; Weissbourd, Richard

2013-01-01

Teachers' social and emotional competencies are very important to their overall effectiveness, but such skills are frequently overlooked. Social and emotional competencies like managing emotions and stress are needed more today than ever before. More practices and policies to support and foster educators' social and emotional…

Social skills treatment for people with severe, chronic acquired brain injuries: a multicenter trial.

PubMed

McDonald, Skye; Tate, Robyn; Togher, Leanne; Bornhofen, Cristina; Long, Esther; Gertler, Paul; Bowen, Rebecca

2008-09-01

To determine whether social skills deficits including unskilled, inappropriate behavior, problems reading social cues (social perception), and mood disturbances (such as depression and anxiety) could be remediated after severe traumatic brain injuries. Randomized controlled trial comparing a social skills program with social activity alone or with waitlist control. Several participants were reassigned after randomization. Hospital outpatient and community facilities. Fifty-one outpatients from 3 brain injury units in Sydney, Australia, with severe, chronic acquired brain injuries were recruited. A total of 39 people (13 in skills training, 13 in social activity, 13 in waitlist) completed all phases of the study. Twelve-week social skills treatment program encompassing weekly 3-hour group sessions focused on shaping social behavior and remediating social perception and 1-hour individual sessions to address psychologic issues with mood, self-esteem, etc. Primary outcomes were: (1) social behavior during encounters with a confederate as rated on the Behaviorally Referenced Rating System of Intermediary Social Skills-Revised (BRISS-R), (2) social perception as measured by The Awareness of Social Inference Test, and (3) depression and anxiety as measured by the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale. Secondary outcomes were: relative report on social behavior and participation using: the Katz Adjustment Scale-R1; the Social Performance Survey Schedule; the La Trobe Communication Questionnaire; and the Sydney Psychosocial Reintegration Scale (both relative and self-report). Repeated-measures analysis of variance indicated that social activity alone did not lead to improved performance relative to waitlist (placebo effect) on any outcome variable. On the other hand, the skills training group improved differentially on the Partner Directed Behavior Scale of the BRISS-R, specifically the self-centered behavior and partner involvement behavior subscales. No treatment effects

Socially ADDept: Teaching Social Skills to Children with ADHD, LD, and Asperger's, Revised Edition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Giler, Janet Z.

2011-01-01

"Socially ADDept" helps educators and parents teach the hidden rules of social behavior to children with limited social skills, notably those with special needs like ADHD, learning disabilities, Asperger's and high-functioning autism, Tourette Syndrome, and nonverbal learning disabilities. The author provides all the information parents and…

Psychopathological symptoms, social skills, and personality traits: a study with adolescents.

PubMed

Landazabal, Maite Garaigordobil

2006-11-01

The purpose of this study is two-fold: (a) to study the concomitant relationships between psychopathological symptoms, cooperation, social skills, and other personality traits; and (b) to identify the predictive variables of psychopathological symptoms. The sample consists of 322 adolescents aged 14 to 17 years old. This study uses correlational methodology. In order to assess psychopathological symptoms, cooperation, social skills, and personality traits, the following scales are used: the Symptom Checklist (SCL-90-R; Derogatis, 1983), the Cooperativeness Scale (CS; Rigby, Cox, and Black, 1997), the MESSY social skills scale (Matson, Rotatori, and Helsel, 1983), and the TPT Personality Test (Corral, Pamos, Pereña, and& Seisdedos, 2002). Pearson coefficients suggest that adolescents with many psychopathological symptoms have low levels of cooperative behaviors and social skills. They also score high in inappropriate assertiveness, impulsiveness, overconfidence, and jealousy-withdrawal and have low levels of emotional stability, sociability, and responsibility. Through multiple regression analyses, the following variables were identified as predictors of psychopathological symptoms: jealousy-withdrawal, low social integration, impulsiveness, and low self-concept. The role played by intervention programs promoting socio-emotional development to prevent psychopathological symptoms and enhance mental health is discussed.

Functioning of Social Skills from Middle Childhood to Early Adolescence in Hungary

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zsolnai, Anikó; Kasik, László

2014-01-01

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to describe the social skills that crucially affect children's social behaviour in the school. Our objective was to gather information about the functioning of social skills from middle childhood to early adolescence. The sample consisted of 7-, 9-, and 11-year-old Hungarian students (N = 1398). Based on…

Social Skills, Competence, and Drug Refusal Efficacy as Predictors of Adolescent Alcohol Use.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scheier, Lawrence M.; Botvin, Gilbert J.; Diaz, Tracy; Griffin, Kenneth W.

1999-01-01

Examines the extent to which assertiveness and related social skills, personal competence, and refusal efficacy predict alcohol involvement in adolescents. Males were at higher risk for poor refusal skills and reported higher alcohol involvement. Youth characterized by poor social skill development reported lower refusal efficacy, lower grades,…

Distinct emotion regulation skills explain psychopathology and problems in social relationships following childhood emotional abuse and neglect.

PubMed

Berzenski, Sara R

2018-03-22

Efforts to differentiate between the developmental sequelae of childhood emotional abuse and childhood emotional neglect are critical to both research and practice efforts. As an oft-identified mechanism of the effects of child maltreatment on later adjustment, emotion dysregulation represents a key potential pathway. The present study explored a higher order factor model of specific emotion regulation skills, and the extent to which these skill sets would indicate distinct developmental pathways from unique emotional maltreatment experiences to multidomain adjustment. A sample of 500 ethnoracially diverse college students reported on their experiences. A two-factor model of emotion regulation skills based on subscales of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale was revealed. Significant indirect effects of childhood emotional abuse on psychopathology and problems in social relationships were found through response-focused difficulties in emotion regulation, whereas a significant indirect effect of childhood emotional neglect on problems in social relationships was found through antecedent-focused difficulties in emotion regulation. These results are consistent with theoretical models and empirical evidence suggesting differential effects of childhood emotional abuse and emotional neglect, and provide an important indication for developing targeted interventions focusing on specific higher order emotion dysregulation skill clusters.

Parental management of peer relationships and early adolescents' social skills.

PubMed

Mounts, Nina S

2011-04-01

Despite a growing body of research on parental management of peer relationships, little is known about the relationship between parental management of peers and early adolescents' social skills or the precursors to parental management of peer relationships. The goals of this short-term longitudinal investigation were to examine the relationship between parental management of peers (consulting and guiding), conflict about peers, and adolescents' social skills (cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control) and to examine potential precursors (goals of improving peer relationships and beliefs about authority over peer relationships) to parental management of peer relationships. A predominantly White sample (71%) of 75 seventh-graders (57% female) and their primary caregivers participated in the 9-month investigation. Caregivers completed questionnaires regarding goals of improving their adolescents' peer relationships, beliefs about parental authority over peer relationships, parental management of peers, and adolescents' social skills. Adolescents completed questionnaires regarding their social skills. Path analyses suggest that a greater number of caregivers' goals of improving peer relationships and higher beliefs about parental authority over peers were related to higher levels of consulting, guiding, and conflict about peers. Higher levels of conflict about peers in conjunction with higher levels of consulting were related to lower levels of assertion and responsibility in peer relationships over time. When parents reported having a greater number of goals of improving peer relationships, adolescents reported higher levels of cooperation, assertion, empathy, and self control over time. Findings suggest that caregivers' goals and beliefs are important in predicting parental management of peer relationships and adolescents' social skills over time, and that conflict about peers undermines caregivers' efforts to be positively involved in

Social Stories: Mechanisms of Effectiveness in Increasing Game Play Skills in Children Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder Using a Pretest Posttest Repeated Measures Randomized Control Group Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Quirmbach, Linda M.; Lincoln, Alan J.; Feinberg-Gizzo, Monica J.; Ingersoll, Brooke R.; Andrews, Siri M.

2009-01-01

An increasing body of literature has indicated that social stories are an effective way to teach individuals diagnosed with autism appropriate social behavior. This study compared two formats of a social story targeting the improvement of social skills during game play using a pretest posttest repeated measures randomized control group design. A…

Correlations among Social-Cognitive Skills in Adolescents Involved in Acting or Arts Classes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goldstein, Thalia R.

2011-01-01

Empathy, theory of mind, and adaptive emotion regulation are critical skills for social functioning. However, the ways in which these skills may co- or differentially develop has thus far been understudied. We explored how these social-cognitive skills converge and diverge across a year of development in early adolescence, and with different kinds…

Evaluation of a Music Therapy Social Skills Development Program for Youth with Limited Resources.

PubMed

Pasiali, Varvara; Clark, Cherie

2018-05-21

Children living in low-resource communities are at risk for poorer socio-emotional development and academic performance. Emerging evidence supports use of group music therapy experiences to support social development through community afterschool programming. To examine the potential benefit of a music therapy social skills development program to improve social skills and academic performance of school-aged children with limited resources in an afterschool program. We used a single-group pre/post-test design, and recruited 20 students (11 females, 9 males), ages 5 to 11 years, from an afterschool program. The music therapy social skills program consisted of eight 50-minute sessions, and we measured social competence and antisocial behavior using the Home & Community Social Behavioral Scale (HCSBS; Merrell & Caldarella, 2008), and social skills, problem behaviors, and academic competence using the Social Skills Improvement System (SSIS; Gresham & Elliot, 2008a, 2008b). Only students who attended a minimum of six sessions (N = 14) were included in data analysis. Results showed no significant change in individual HBSC subscale scores; however, the total number of low-performance/high-risk skills significantly decreased. SSIS teacher results indicated significant improvement in communication, significant decrease of hyperactivity, autistic behavioral tendencies and overall problem behaviors, and marginal decreases in internalization. Parent ratings mirrored, in part, those of the teacher. Results indicated that music therapy has the potential of being an effective intervention for promoting social competence of school-aged children with limited resources, particularly in the areas of communication and low-performance/high-risk behaviors. Teaching skills through song lyrics and improvisation emerged as salient interventions.

Social Skills as a Mediator between Anxiety Symptoms and Peer Interactions among Children and Adolescents

PubMed Central

Motoca, Luci M.; Williams, Sandra; Silverman, Wendy K.

2012-01-01

Objective The present study used a cross-sectional design to examine the relations among youth anxiety symptoms, positive and negative peer interactions, and social skills. Also examined was the mediating role of social skills in the relations between youth anxiety symptoms and positive and negative peer interactions. Youth sex and age were examined as moderators. Method The sample consisted of 397 children and adolescents (M = 10.11 years; 53.4% boys; 74.8% Hispanic Latino) referred to an anxiety disorders clinic. Anxiety symptoms, positive and negative peer interactions, and social skills were assessed using youth and parent ratings. Results Structural equation modeling results indicated that for youth ratings only, youth anxiety symptoms were negatively related to positive peer interactions controlling for primary social phobia and comorbid depressive disorders. For both youth and parent ratings, youth anxiety symptoms were positively related to negative peer interactions and negatively related to social skills. Also for both youth and parent ratings, social skills mediated the relations between youth anxiety symptoms and positive and negative peer interactions. For parent ratings only, the effects of youth anxiety symptoms and social skills on peer interactions were significantly moderated by youth age. Youth sex was not a significant moderator using youth and parent ratings. Conclusions Findings suggest difficulties with social skills and peer interactions are problematic features of youth referred for anxiety problems. Findings highlight the need to improve understanding of anxiety symptoms, social skills, and peer interactions in this population. PMID:22471319

Social skills as a mediator between anxiety symptoms and peer interactions among children and adolescents.

PubMed

Motoca, Luci M; Williams, Sandra; Silverman, Wendy K

2012-01-01

The present study used a cross-sectional design to examine the relations among youth anxiety symptoms, positive and negative peer interactions, and social skills. Also examined was the mediating role of social skills in the relations between youth anxiety symptoms and positive and negative peer interactions. Youth sex and age were examined as moderators. The sample consisted of 397 children and adolescents (M = 10.11 years; 53.4% boys; 74.8% Hispanic Latino) referred to an anxiety disorders clinic. Anxiety symptoms, positive and negative peer interactions, and social skills were assessed using youth and parent ratings. Structural equation modeling results indicated that for youth ratings only, youth anxiety symptoms were negatively related to positive peer interactions controlling for primary social phobia and comorbid depressive disorders. For both youth and parent ratings, youth anxiety symptoms were positively related to negative peer interactions and negatively related to social skills. Also for both youth and parent ratings, social skills mediated the relations between youth anxiety symptoms and positive and negative peer interactions. For parent ratings only, the effects of youth anxiety symptoms and social skills on peer interactions were significantly moderated by youth age. Youth sex was not a significant moderator using youth and parent ratings. Findings suggest that difficulties with social skills and peer interactions are problematic features of youth referred for anxiety problems. Findings highlight the need to improve understanding of anxiety symptoms, social skills, and peer interactions in this population.

Factor structure of essential social skills to be salespersons in retail market: implications for psychiatric rehabilitation.

PubMed

Cheung, Leo C C; Tsang, Hector W H

2005-12-01

This study continued the effort to apply social skills training to increase vocational outcomes of people with severe mental illness. We planned to identify factor structure of essential social skills necessary for mental health consumers who have a vocational preference to work as salesperson in retail market. Exploratory factor analysis of the results of a 26-item questionnaire survey suggested a five-factor solution: social skills when interacting with customers, problem-solving skills, knowledge and attitudes, flexibility, and skills for conflict prevention, which accounted for 65.1% of the total variance. With the factor solution, we developed a job-specific social skills training program (JSST) to help consumers who want to be salespersons. The structure and session design followed the basic format of a typical social skills training program. The way this JSST is to be used with the work-related social skills training model previously developed by the corresponding author to produce better vocational outcomes of consumers is suggested.

Pretesting Effects in the Evaluation of Social Skills Training.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mungas, Dan M.; Walters, Herman A.

1979-01-01

Evaluated effects of pretesting in conjunction with a group social skills training program. A Solomon four-groups design was used to evaluate the effects of pretesting, the skills training program, and their interaction. Strong evidence of pretesting effects was found for measures associated with a behavioral forced interaction task. (Author)

Social Competence and Social Skills Training and Intervention for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cotugno, Albert J.

2009-01-01

This study examined the effectiveness of a 30 week social competence and social skills group intervention program with children, ages 7-11, diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Eighteen children with ASD were assessed with pretreatment and posttreatment measures on the Walker-McConnell Scale (WMS) and the MGH YouthCare Social Competence…

[A longitudinal (3 years) study of the development of four children with autism without mental retardation after 90 sessions of social skills training].

PubMed

Liratni, M; Blanchet, C; Pry, R

2016-12-01

Few studies on social skills training essentially based on ABA techniques are dedicated to children with autism aged 5 to 10 years whereas autistic disorders can be diagnosed in very early childhood. Generally, the main criticisms about these social skills training are: shortness of programs (around 20 sessions), no manual with precise descriptions of sessions and used techniques, and a lack of generalization of the learned skills in everyday life. To describe the evolution (before/after) of symptoms and sociocommunicative skills of 7 children with autism and no mental retardation (mean age=7.08) who participated in 90 sessions (during 3 years) in a learning group of communication and socialization (or LGCS). To develop these sessions, we referred to intellectual and verbal levels obtained by the children on The Wechsler Intelligence Scales. We proposed activities such as open discussion, telling about events or vacations, learning of and communicative social rules, social games, outdoor exercises at home or in parks/shops/supermarkets/restaurants with known/unknown children/adults/sellers. To target the social and communicative skills, we also referred to their intellectual level and to Assessment of basic language and learning skills (ABBLS). To practice these sessions, we referred to: (1) TEACCH cognitive ergonomics principles (Treatment and education of autistic and related communication handicapped children developed by Schopler); and especially (2) ABA techniques (Applied behavior analysis) which are rarely mentioned as such. In particular, we used techniques such as: (a) concrete reinforcements which were frequently evaluated; (b) precise levels of verbal incentives and (c) error corrections. To measure the changes, we assessed children with psychometric tests before and after 90 sessions (ADOS and VABS). The scores show significant improvements in autistic symptoms related to communication (ADOS, P=0.03) and significant improvements in both

Social skills and depressive symptoms across adolescence: social support as a mediator in girls versus boys.

PubMed

Nilsen, Wendy; Karevold, Evalill; Røysamb, Espen; Gustavson, Kristin; Mathiesen, Kristin S

2013-02-01

The current population-based study of Norwegian adolescents examined gender-specific patterns in the prospective association between social skills in early adolescence (age 12.5; n = 566) and changes in depressive symptoms from early to late adolescence (age 16.5; n = 375). Further, a potential mediation effect of social support (from peers, parents, and teachers) in middle adolescence (age 14.5; n = 456) was examined. The findings indicated that low levels of social skills in early adolescence predicted increases in depressive symptoms for both girls and boys. Low levels of friend support in middle adolescence mediated this relationship for girls, but not boys. The findings underline the importance of including social skills training in primary programs designed to prevent development of depression. Preventive programs should also include actions on how girls can cope with interpersonal difficulties. Copyright © 2012 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sustaining Employment: Social Skills at Work.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jonikas, Jessica A.; And Others

This manual is intended for use by persons with psychiatric disabilities who are employed in the community but need to improve their social skills to maintain their employment. It is designed to be taught to mental health consumers by mental health consumers. Each session outline includes objectives; a list of materials needed; and exercises that…

Diagnostic Utility of the Social Skills Improvement System Performance Screening Guide

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krach, S. Kathleen; McCreery, Michael P.; Wang, Ye; Mohammadiamin, Houra; Cirks, Christen K.

2017-01-01

Researchers investigated the diagnostic utility of the Social Skills Improvement System: Performance Screening Guide (SSIS-PSG). Correlational, regression, receiver operating characteristic (ROC), and conditional probability analyses were run to compare ratings on the SSIS-PSG subscales of Prosocial Behavior, Reading Skills, and Math Skills, to…

Developmental Trajectories of Social Skills during Early Childhood and Links to Parenting Practices in a Japanese Sample.

PubMed

Takahashi, Yusuke; Okada, Kensuke; Hoshino, Takahiro; Anme, Tokie

2015-01-01

This study used data from a nationwide survey in Japan to model the developmental course of social skills during early childhood. The goals of this study were to identify longitudinal profiles of social skills between 2 and 5 years of age using a group-based trajectory approach, and to investigate whether and to what extent parenting practices at 2 years of age predicted developmental trajectories of social skills during the preschool period. A relatively large sample of boys and girls (N > 1,000) was assessed on three social skill dimensions (Cooperation, Self-control, and Assertion) at four time points (ages 2, 3, 4, and 5), and on four parenting practices (cognitive and emotional involvement, avoidance of restriction and punishment, social stimulation, and social support for parenting) at age 2. The results indicated that for each social skill dimension, group-based trajectory models identified three distinct trajectories: low, moderate, and high. Multinomial regression analysis revealed that parenting practice variables showed differential contributions to development of child social skills. Specifically, Cooperation and Assertion were promoted by cognitive and emotional involvement, Self-control by social stimulation, and Assertion by avoidance of restriction and punishment. Abundant social support for parenting was not associated with higher child social skills trajectories. We found heterogeneity in developmental profiles of social skills during the preschool ages, and we identified parenting practices that contributed to different patterns of social skills development. We discussed the implications of higher-quality parenting practices on the improvement of child social skills across early childhood.

Developmental Trajectories of Social Skills during Early Childhood and Links to Parenting Practices in a Japanese Sample

PubMed Central

Takahashi, Yusuke; Okada, Kensuke; Hoshino, Takahiro; Anme, Tokie

2015-01-01

This study used data from a nationwide survey in Japan to model the developmental course of social skills during early childhood. The goals of this study were to identify longitudinal profiles of social skills between 2 and 5 years of age using a group-based trajectory approach, and to investigate whether and to what extent parenting practices at 2 years of age predicted developmental trajectories of social skills during the preschool period. A relatively large sample of boys and girls (N > 1,000) was assessed on three social skill dimensions (Cooperation, Self-control, and Assertion) at four time points (ages 2, 3, 4, and 5), and on four parenting practices (cognitive and emotional involvement, avoidance of restriction and punishment, social stimulation, and social support for parenting) at age 2. The results indicated that for each social skill dimension, group-based trajectory models identified three distinct trajectories: low, moderate, and high. Multinomial regression analysis revealed that parenting practice variables showed differential contributions to development of child social skills. Specifically, Cooperation and Assertion were promoted by cognitive and emotional involvement, Self-control by social stimulation, and Assertion by avoidance of restriction and punishment. Abundant social support for parenting was not associated with higher child social skills trajectories. We found heterogeneity in developmental profiles of social skills during the preschool ages, and we identified parenting practices that contributed to different patterns of social skills development. We discussed the implications of higher-quality parenting practices on the improvement of child social skills across early childhood. PMID:26267439

Characteristics of Social Skills for Adults with Intellectual Disability, Autism and PDD-NOS

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matson, Johnny L.; Dempsey, Timothy; LoVullo, Santino V.

2009-01-01

Social skills deficits and excesses are defining characteristics of intellectual disability (ID). Despite this, there is an unfortunate lack of research on the patterns and profiles of social behavior, particularly with adults who are severely intellectually disabled. This paper provides an analysis of social skill patterns for adults living in…

A Systematic Review of Life Skill Development Through Sports Programs Serving Socially Vulnerable Youth.

PubMed

Hermens, Niels; Super, Sabina; Verkooijen, Kirsten T; Koelen, Maria A

2017-12-01

Despite the strong belief in sports programs as a setting in which socially vulnerable youth can develop life skills, no overview exists of life skill development in sports programs serving this youth group. Therefore, the present systematic review provides an overview of the evidence on life skill development in sports programs serving socially vulnerable youth and, insofar as it was investigated in the included studies, of the conditions conducive to life skill development in these sports programs. Potentially relevant studies published during 1990 to 2014 were identified by a search in 7 electronic databases. The search combined terms relating to (a) sport, (b) youth AND socially vulnerable, and (c) life skills. Eighteen of the 2,076 unique studies met the inclusion criteria. Each included study reported that at least 1 life skill improved in youth who participated in the studied sports program. Improvements in cognitive and social life skills were more frequently reported than were improvements in emotional life skills. Only a few of the included studies investigated the conditions in the studied sports programs that made these programs conducive to life skill development. Sports programs have the potential to make a difference in the life skill development of socially vulnerable youth. This conclusion needs to be treated with some caution, because the studies experienced many challenges in reducing the risk for bias. Several alternative research strategies are suggested for future studies in this field.

Social Skills Training: Evaluating its Effectiveness for Students with Learning Disabilities, Emotional, and Behavioral Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campbell, Gregory

2008-01-01

The purpose of this review is to describe important criteria used to evaluate the effectiveness of Social Skills Training Programs. The analysis defines social skills, discusses causes and effects of social skill deficits, and examines the research establishing criteria described by teachers, administrators, and students. The paper concludes with…

Addiction to Social Networks and Social Skills in Students from a Private Educational Institution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Domínguez-Vergara, Julio A.; Ybañez-Carranza, Jessenia

2016-01-01

This research aims to determine the relationship between addiction to social networks and social skills in students of a private educational centre. A correlational descriptive study where the sample was represented by 205 students from 1st to 5th grade of junior high school was conducted. Two instruments were used: "Goldstein Social Skills…

Cognitive functioning and social problem-solving skills in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Hatashita-Wong, Michi; Smith, Thomas E; Silverstein, Steven M; Hull, James W; Willson, Deborah F

2002-05-01

This study examined the relationships between symptoms, cognitive functioning, and social skill deficits in schizophrenia. Few studies have incorporated measures of cognitive functioning and symptoms in predictive models for social problem solving. For our study, 44 participants were recruited from consecutive outpatient admissions. Neuropsychological tests were given to assess cognitive function, and social problem solving was assessed using structured vignettes designed to evoke the participant's ability to generate, evaluate, and apply solutions to social problems. A sequential model-fitting method of analysis was used to incorporate social problem solving, symptom presentation, and cognitive impairment into linear regression models. Predictor variables were drawn from demographic, cognitive, and symptom domains. Because this method of analysis was exploratory and not intended as hierarchical modelling, no a priori hypotheses were proposed. Participants with higher scores on tests of cognitive flexibility were better able to generate accurate, appropriate, and relevant responses to the social problem-solving vignettes. The results suggest that cognitive flexibility is a potentially important mediating factor in social problem-solving competence. While other factors are related to social problem-solving skill, this study supports the importance of cognition and understanding how it relates to the complex and multifaceted nature of social functioning.

The Effects of the Parenting Styles on Social Skills of Children Aged 5-6

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kol, Suat

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of the parenting styles on social skills of children aged 5-6. The problem sentence of the research is; Do the parenting styles' have any effects on social skills of children aged 5-6?. The sub-problems of the research are in the form as; Does the social skills of children aged 5-6 differs from…

In the Rearview Mirror: Social Skill Development in Deaf Youth, 1990-2015

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cawthon, Stephanie W.; Fink, Bentley; Schoffstall, Sarah; Wendel, Erica

2018-01-01

Social skills are a vehicle by which individuals negotiate important relationships. The present article presents historical data on how social skills in deaf students were conceptualized and studied empirically during the period 1990-2015. Using a structured literature review approach, the researchers coded 266 articles for theoretical frameworks…

Benefits General Education Students Receive from Inclusion Classes and Social Skills Training Groups

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elliott, Denise Marie

2012-01-01

Social inclusion has become an increasingly relevant issue in public school education during the past several years. Differences between social skills in students who were educated in inclusion elementary school classrooms and those who were not placed in inclusion classrooms were examined. Teachers were asked to rate the social skills of students…

Social Skills, Problem Behaviors and Classroom Management in Inclusive Preschool Settings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karakaya, Esra G.; Tufan, Mumin

2018-01-01

This study aimed to determine preschool teachers' classroom management skills and investigate the relationships between teachers' classroom management skills and inclusion students' social skills and problem behaviors. Relational screening model was used as the research method. Study group consisted of 42 pre-school teachers working in Kocaeli…

Social Skills Group Training in High-Functioning Autism: A Qualitative Responder Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Choque Olsson, Nora; Rautio, Daniel; Asztalos, Jenny; Stoetzer, Ulrich; Bölte, Sven

2016-01-01

Systematic reviews show some evidence for the efficacy of group-based social skills group training in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder, but more rigorous research is needed to endorse generalizability. In addition, little is known about the perspectives of autistic individuals participating in social skills group training.…

Reciprocal Relations between Student-Teacher Conflict, Children's Social Skills and Externalizing Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Skalická, Vera; Stenseng, Frode; Wichstrøm, Lars

2015-01-01

Research suggests that the relation between student-teacher conflict and children's externalizing behavior might be reciprocal, and possibly also between student-teacher conflict and children's social skills. Because children with externalizing behavior also tend to display low levels of social skills, we do not know if one or both of these…

The Combined Use of Video Modeling and Social Stories in Teaching Social Skills for Individuals with Intellectual Disability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gül, Seray Olçay

2016-01-01

There are many studies in the literature in which individuals with intellectual disabilities exhibit social skills deficits and which show the need for teaching these skills systematically. This study aims to investigate the effects of an intervention package of consisting computer-presented video modeling and Social Stories on individuals with…

Social skills: a factor of protection against eating disorders in adolescentes.

PubMed

Uzunian, Laura Giron; Vitalle, Maria Sylvia de Souza

2015-11-01

The purpose of this study is to provide a review of the literature on the relationship between eating disorders and social skills in adolescents. A search was made on the Medline, SciELO and Lilacs databases, for items combining the terms 'eating disorders', 'anorexia nervosa', 'bulimia nervosa' and 'food behavior', with the terms 'social psychology' and 'social isolation', and with the keywords 'social competence', 'social skill' and 'interpersonal relations'. The following were included: studies on adolescents; in Portuguese, English and Spanish; published in the years 2007 through 2012. The search resulted in 63 articles, and 50 were included in this review. The majority of the studies were made in Brazil and the United States. Of the total, 43 were original articles. The studies aimed to understand how emotional state could influence the establishment of eating disorders, interpersonal relationships and peer relationship. The articles also discussed the influence of the media and of society in this process. Based on the analysis of the studies, it was observed that the greater an adolescent's repertory of social skills, the greater his or her factor of protection against the development of eating disorders.

Skills for social and academic success: a school-based intervention for social anxiety disorder in adolescents.

PubMed

Fisher, Paige H; Masia-Warner, Carrie; Klein, Rachel G

2004-12-01

This paper describes Skills for Academic and Social Success (SASS), a cognitive-behavioral, school-based intervention for adolescents with social anxiety disorder. Clinic-based treatment studies for socially anxious youth are reviewed, and a strong rationale for transporting empirically-based interventions into schools, such as SASS, is provided. The SASS program consists of 12, 40-min group sessions that emphasize social skills and in-vivo exposure. In addition to group sessions, students are seen individually at least twice and participate in 4 weekend social events with prosocial peers from their high schools. Meetings with teachers provide information about social anxiety and facilitate classroom exposures for socially anxious participants. Parents attend 2 psychoeducational meetings about social anxiety, its treatment, and approaches for managing their child's anxiety. Initial findings regarding the program's effectiveness are presented. We conclude by discussing the challenges involved in implementing treatment protocols in schools and provide suggestions to address these issues.

Group social skills interventions for adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders: A systematic review.

PubMed

Spain, Debbie; Blainey, Sarah H

2015-10-01

Autism spectrum disorders are characterised by impairments in communication and social interaction. Social skills interventions have been found to ameliorate socio-communication deficits in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. Little is known about the effectiveness of social skills interventions for adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (hf-ASD) - a clinical population who can present with more subtle core deficits, but comparable levels of impairment and secondary difficulties. A systematic review was undertaken to investigate the effectiveness of social skills interventions for adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders. Five studies met the pre-specified review inclusion criteria: two quasi-experimental comparative trials and three single-arm interventions. There was a degree of variation in the structure, duration and content of the social skills interventions delivered, as well as several methodological limitations associated with included studies. Nevertheless, narrative analysis tentatively indicates that group social skills interventions may be effective for enhancing social knowledge and understanding, improving social functioning, reducing loneliness and potentially alleviating co-morbid psychiatric symptoms. © The Author(s) 2015.

Teacher Support as a Buffer between Interparental Conflict and Child Social Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spjeldnes, Solveig; Koeske, Gary; Sales, Esther

2010-01-01

This study, conducted in 2004, investigated the direct effect of interparental conflict (IPC) about child-raising issues on the social skills of middle-class US children who attended a suburban preschool and the buffering effect of teacher support (n = 170). Findings indicated that greater IPC was associated with poorer child social skills. The…

The influence of maltreatment history and out-of-home-care on children's language and social skills.

PubMed

Lum, Jarrad A G; Powell, Martine; Snow, Pamela C

2018-02-01

This study examined the extent to which maltreatment history and the characteristics of out-of-home care correlated with the language and social skills of maltreated children. Participants in this study were 82 maltreated children aged between 5 and 12 years of age. All children were residing with state-designated carers in out-of-home-care. The children were presented with standardised tests assessing language and social skills. Results showed that the sample performed significantly below the normative mean on both tests. Correlation analyses showed social skills, but not language skills were correlated with aspects of maltreatment history. The education level of the state-designated carer/s was correlated with the children's language skills; higher education level was associated with higher language skills. The study provides evidence that at the group level, language and social skills are poor in maltreated children. However, gains in language skills might be made via the out-of-home-care environment. Improvements in the social skills of maltreated children may require additional support. Crown Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Effects of "Second Step" and Inclusion on Special Education Students' Social Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Machado, Andrea Kathleen

2017-01-01

Many students lack social skills that hinder their success in school; students in special education are even more at risk. Social-emotional curricula have been developed to help build these social skills school-wide. Most research on the effects of social-emotional curricula has been conducted on general education students. The first purpose of…

Employment barriers, skills, and aspirations among unemployed job seekers with and without social anxiety disorder.

PubMed

Himle, Joseph A; Weaver, Addie; Bybee, Deborah; O'Donnell, Lisa; Vlnka, Sarah; Laviolette, Wayne; Steinberger, Edward; Golenberg, Zipora; Levine, Debra Siegel

2014-07-01

The literature has consistently demonstrated that social anxiety disorder has substantial negative impacts on occupational functioning. However, to date, no empirical work has focused on understanding the specific nature of vocational problems among persons with social anxiety disorder. This study examined the association between perceived barriers to employment, employment skills, and job aspirations and social anxiety among adults seeking vocational rehabilitation services. Data from intake assessments (June 2010-December 2011) of 265 low-income, unemployed adults who initiated vocational rehabilitation services in urban Michigan were examined to assess perceived barriers to employment, employment skills, job aspirations, and demographic characteristics among participants who did or did not screen positive for social anxiety disorder. Bivariate and multiple logistic regression analyses were performed. After adjustment for other factors, the multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that perceiving more employment barriers involving experience and skills, reporting fewer skills related to occupations requiring social skills, and having less education were significantly associated with social anxiety disorder. Participants who screened positive for social anxiety disorder were significantly less likely to aspire to social jobs. Employment-related characteristics that were likely to have an impact on occupational functioning were significantly different between persons with and without social anxiety problems. Identifying these differences in employment barriers, skills, and job aspirations revealed important information for designing psychosocial interventions for treatment of social anxiety disorder. The findings underscored the need for vocational services professionals to assess and address social anxiety among their clients.

Commentary on Social Skills Training Curricula for Individuals with ASD: Social Interaction, Authenticity, and Stigma

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bottema-Beutel, Kristen; Park, Haerin; Kim, So Yoon

2018-01-01

By teaching social rules thought to be necessary for social competence, social skills training (SST) curricula aim to improve indicators of well-being for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), such as the attainment of meaningful friendships. However, several recent meta-analyses indicate that SST curricula may fall short of these…

A Replication and Extension of the PEERS® for Young Adults Social Skills Intervention: Examining Effects on Social Skills and Social Anxiety in Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McVey, Alana J.; Dolan, Bridget K.; Willar, Kirsten S.; Pleiss, Sheryl; Karst, Jeffrey S.; Casnar, Christina L.; Caiozzo, Christina; Vogt, Elisabeth M.; Gordon, Nakia S.; Van Hecke, Amy Vaughan

2016-01-01

Young adults with ASD experience difficulties with social skills, empathy, loneliness, and social anxiety. One intervention, "PEERS® for Young Adults," shows promise in addressing these challenges. The present study replicated and extended the original study by recruiting a larger sample (N = 56), employing a gold standard ASD assessment…

Social Skills Training for Adolescents with Asperger's Syndrome Using a Consultation Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Minihan, Aileen; Kinsella, William; Honan, Rita

2011-01-01

A case study design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of behavioural consultation as a method for improving the social skills of adolescents with Asperger's syndrome. Two case studies were conducted. In each study, two teachers implemented a social skills programme with two to three adolescents with Asperger's syndrome in a group setting with…

Social Skills in Preschool Children with Unilateral and Mild Bilateral Hearing Loss

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Laugen, Nina J.; Jacobsen, Karl H.; Rieffe, Carolien; Wichstrøm, Lars

2017-01-01

Hearing loss may represent a risk for developing social skills difficulties; however, little is known about the potential risk resulting from unilateral or mild bilateral hearing loss (UMHL). We compared the social skills of 14 children with UMHL and 21 children with moderate to severe hearing loss (MSHL) with those of 123 children with typical…

Teaching Social Skills and Assertiveness to Students with Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moffett, Aaron; Alexander, Melissa G. F.; Dummer, Gail M.

2006-01-01

This article discusses teaching social skills and assertiveness to students with disabilities. The National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) content standards for physical education emphasize teaching responsible personal and social behaviors to students of all abilities, to help them develop an understanding of and respect for…

Social Studies Teacher Candidates' Views on Historical Thinking Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ozmen, Cengiz

2015-01-01

Current study aimed to present Social Studies teacher candidates' views on historical thinking skills. Study was conducted using qualitative design and working group was composed of a total of 121 teacher candidates (62 females and 59 males) attending Social Studies Teaching Department of Karadeniz Technical University and Adiyaman University…

Understanding How Social and Emotional Skill Deficits Contribute to School Failure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whitted, Kathryn S.

2011-01-01

A growing number of children are entering kindergarten without the skills that enable them to be successful in an academic setting. However, it is not children's cognitive skills that concern educators; it is their social and emotional skill deficits that are most troublesome. This article discusses how family and community risk factors can…

Formation of social and household skills in children with hand defects.

PubMed

Klimon, Nataly; Koryukov, Alexander; Loseva, Nina; Starobina, Elena

2015-08-01

The aim of this study was to consider the peculiarities of forming social and household skills, and the criteria for their evaluation, as well as an assessment of functional capacity, in children with hand defects both before and after surgical treatment and rehabilitation courses using a system of games. We elaborated and implemented a program of social rehabilitation of preschool children with congenital and acquired hand defects for the development of their functional capabilities and the formation of social and household skills after surgical treatment and prosthetics using play therapy methods. As part of this work, 140 preschool children aged 3-7 years underwent social rehabilitation. Most of the children had congenital hand defects-122 children (87 %): 96 children (79 %) with ectrodactylia, adactylia, hypoplasia, aplasia, hand splitting, club hand, or partial gigantism; 26 children (21 %) with congenital syndactylism and constricted bonds and 18 children (13 %) with acquired defects (burn deformity, amputation). 110 children (79 %) had reached the stage of surgical correction; 30 children (21 %) reached the stage of prosthetics. Most of the children participating in the experiment (78 children, 56 %) had defects of fingers on one hand. The program aimed at solving specific rehabilitation tasks: formation and improvement of all possible types of grip under the existing defect including those after surgery and prosthetics; development of tactile sensations in fingers; development of fine motor skills; increase in range of motion in all joints of the damaged hand; development of attention and concentration; formation of social and household skills appropriate to age; and development of the ability to achieve the set task. Analysis of the level of social and household skills of children with hand defects undergoing rehabilitation treatment at the hospital depending on the age prior to medical and social rehabilitation showed that preschool children with

The association between social skills deficits and family history of mood disorder in bipolar I disorder.

PubMed

Fernandes, Francy B F; Rocca, Cristiana C; Gigante, Alexandre D; Dottori-Silva, Paola R; Gerchmann, Luciana; Rossini, Danielle; Sato, Rodrigo; Lafer, Beny; Nery, Fabiano G

2018-03-26

To compare social skills and related executive functions among bipolar disorder (BD) patients with a family history of mood disorders (FHMD), BD patients with no FHMD and healthy control (HCs). We evaluated 20 euthymic patients with FHMD, 17 euthymic patients without FHMD, and 31 HCs using the Social Skills Inventory (SSI) and a neuropsychological battery evaluating executive function, inhibitory control, verbal fluency and estimated intelligence. Both BD groups had lower SSI scores than controls. Scores for one subfactor of the social skills questionnaire, conversational skills and social performance, were significantly lower among patients with FHMD than among patients without FHMD (p = 0.019). Both groups of BD patients exhibited significant deficits in initiation/inhibition, but only BD patients with FHMD had deficits in verbal fluency, both compared to HC. There were no associations between social skills questionnaire scores and measures of cognitive function. Euthymic BD patients have lower social skills and executive function performance than HC. The presence of FHMD among BD patients is specifically associated with deficits in conversational and social performance skills, in addition to deficits in verbal fluency. Both characteristics might be associated with a common genetically determined pathophysiological substrate.

A comparison of two group-delivered social skills programs for young children with autism.

PubMed

Kroeger, K A; Schultz, Janet R; Newsom, Crighton

2007-05-01

A social skills group intervention was developed and evaluated for young children with autism. Twenty-five 4- to 6-year-old (diagnosed) children were assigned to one of two kinds of social skills groups: the direct teaching group or the play activities group. The direct teaching group used a video-modeling format to teach play and social skills over the course of the intervention, while the play activities group engaged in unstructured play during the sessions. Groups met for 5 weeks, three times per week, 1 h each time. Data were derived and coded from videotapes of pre- and post-treatment unstructured play sessions. Findings indicated that while members of both groups increased prosocial behaviors, the direct teaching group made more gains in social skills.

Efficacy of the Social Skills Improvement System Classwide Intervention Program (SSIS-CIP) primary version.

PubMed

DiPerna, James Clyde; Lei, Puiwa; Bellinger, Jillian; Cheng, Weiyi

2015-03-01

A multisite cluster randomized trial was conducted to examine the effects of the Social Skills Improvement System Classwide Intervention Program (SSIS-CIP; Elliott & Gresham, 2007) on students' classroom social behavior. The final sample included 432 students across 38 second grade classrooms. Social skills and problem behaviors were measured via the SSIS rating scale for all participants, and direct observations were completed for a subsample of participants within each classroom. Results indicated that the SSIS-CIP demonstrated positive effects on teacher ratings of participants' social skills and internalizing behaviors, with the greatest changes occurring in classrooms with students who exhibited lower skill proficiency prior to implementation. Statistically significant differences were not observed between treatment and control participants on teacher ratings of externalizing problem behaviors or direct observation.

Group Counseling: Techniques for Teaching Social Skills to Students with Special Needs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stephens, Derk; Jain, Sachin; Kim, Kioh

2010-01-01

This paper examines literature that supports the use of group counseling techniques in the school setting to teach social skills to children and adolescents with special needs. From the review of this literature it was found that group counseling is a very effective way of addressing a variety of social skills problems that can be displayed by…

Longitudinal Relationship between Social Skills and Academic Achievement in a Gender Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gustavsen, Ann Margareth

2017-01-01

Previous studies found that girls have higher academic achievement than boys in most school subjects. Teachers' grading of academic achievement seems to be based not only on students' knowledge but also their social skills, and teachers tend to assess girls as having better social skills than boys. The main aim of this study was to examine through…

The relation of parent-child interaction qualities to social skills in children with and without autism spectrum disorders.

PubMed

Haven, Erin L; Manangan, Christen N; Sparrow, Joanne K; Wilson, Beverly J

2014-04-01

This study examined associations between parent-child interactions and the development of social skills in 42 children (21 typically developing and 21 with autism spectrum disorders) between the ages of 3 years, 0 months and 6 years, 11 months. We expected that positive parent-child interaction qualities would be related to children's social skills and would mediate the negative relation between children's developmental status (typical development vs autism spectrum disorders) and social skills. Videotapes of parents and children during a 5-min wordless book task were coded for parent positive affect and emotional support as well as parent-child cohesiveness. Emotional support and cohesiveness were significantly related to children's social skills, such that higher emotional support and cohesiveness were associated with higher social skills, R (2) = .29, p = .02, and R (2) = .38, p = .002, respectively. Additionally, cohesiveness mediated the relation between children's developmental status and social skills. These findings suggest that parent emotional support and cohesiveness between parents and children positively influence children's social skills. Parent positive affect was unrelated to social skills. Implications of these findings for social skills interventions are discussed, particularly for young children with autism spectrum disorders.

Efficacy of the Social Skills Improvement System Classwide Intervention Program (SSIS-CIP) Primary Version

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DiPerna, James Clyde; Lei, Puiwa; Bellinger, Jillian; Cheng, Weiyi

2015-01-01

A multisite cluster randomized trial was conducted to examine the effects of the Social Skills Improvement System Classwide Intervention Program (SSIS-CIP; Elliott & Gresham, 2007) on students' classroom social behavior. The final sample included 432 students across 38 second grade classrooms. Social skills and problem behaviors were measured…

Social skills: a resource for more social support, lower depression levels, higher quality of life, and participation in individuals with spinal cord injury?

PubMed

Müller, Rachel; Peter, Claudio; Cieza, Alarcos; Post, Marcel W; Van Leeuwen, Christel M; Werner, Christina S; Geyh, Szilvia

2015-03-01

To examine the relevance of social skills and their different dimensions (ie, expressivity, sensitivity, control) in relation to social support, depression, participation, and quality of life (QOL) in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). Cross-sectional data collection within the Swiss Spinal Cord Injury Cohort. Community-based. Individuals with SCI (N=503). Not applicable. Depression, participation, and QOL were measured using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Utrecht Scale for Evaluation of Rehabilitation-Participation, and 5 selected items of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale. The Social Skills Inventory and the Social Support Questionnaire were used to assess social skills (expressivity, sensitivity, control) and social support, respectively. Structural equation modeling was conducted. In model 1 (χ(2)=27.81; df=19; P=.087; root mean square error of approximation=.033; 90% confidence interval=.000-.052), social skills as a latent variable was related to social support (β=.31; R(2)=.10), depression (β=-.31; total R(2)=.42), and QOL (β=.46; R(2)=.25). Social support partially mediated the effect of social skills on QOL (indirect effect: β=.04; P=.02) but not on depression or participation. In model 2 (χ(2)=27.96; df=19; P=.084; root mean square error of approximation=.031; 90% confidence interval=.000-.053), the social skills dimension expressivity showed a path coefficient of β=.20 to social support and β=.18 to QOL. Sensitivity showed a negative path coefficient to QOL (β=-.15) and control a path coefficient of β=-.15 to depression and β=.24 to QOL. Social skills are a resource related to more social support, lower depression scores, and higher QOL. Copyright © 2015 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Brief Report: A Pilot Summer Robotics Camp to Reduce Social Anxiety and Improve Social/Vocational Skills in Adolescents with ASD.

PubMed

Kaboski, Juhi R; Diehl, Joshua John; Beriont, Jane; Crowell, Charles R; Villano, Michael; Wier, Kristin; Tang, Karen

2015-12-01

This pilot study evaluated a novel intervention designed to reduce social anxiety and improve social/vocational skills for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The intervention utilized a shared interest in robotics among participants to facilitate natural social interaction between individuals with ASD and typically developing (TD) peers. Eight individuals with ASD and eight TD peers ages 12-17 participated in a weeklong robotics camp, during which they learned robotic facts, actively programmed an interactive robot, and learned "career" skills. The ASD group showed a significant decrease in social anxiety and both groups showed an increase in robotics knowledge, although neither group showed a significant increase in social skills. These initial findings suggest that this approach is promising and warrants further study.

Predicting Bullying: Maladjustment, Social Skills and Popularity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Postigo, Silvia; Gonzalez, Remedios; Mateu, Carmen; Montoya, Inmaculada

2012-01-01

In order to prevent bullying, research has characterised the adolescents involved in terms of their social skills, maladjustment and popularity. However, there is a lack of knowledge concerning the relationships between these variables and how these relationships predict bullying involvement. Moreover, the literature has focused on pure bullies…

Improving Communicative Competence: Validation of a Social Skills Training Workshop.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dawson, Pamela J.; Spitzberg, Brian H.

The effectiveness of a social skills training workshop was assessed by comparing the rated competence of participants in an Interpersonal Skills Training Program to the rated competence of nonparticipants. Subjects' self-ratings were included. This comparison was operationalized through a pretest-posttest design with 12 experimental and 22 control…

Delinquency, Social Skills and the Structure of Peer Relations: Assessing Criminological Theories by Social Network Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smangs, Mattias

2010-01-01

This article explores the plausibility of the conflicting theoretical assumptions underlying the main criminological perspectives on juvenile delinquents, their peer relations and social skills: the social ability model, represented by Sutherland's theory of differential associations, and the social disability model, represented by Hirschi's…

The Effects of Social Skills Instruction on the Social Behaviors of Students at Risk for Emotional or Behavioral Disorders.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lo, Ya-yu; Loe, Scott A.; Cartledge, Gwendolyn

2002-01-01

A study examined the effects of pullout small-group and teacher-directed classroom-based social skills instruction on antisocial behaviors of five third- and fourth-grade students at risk for emotional or behavioral disorders. Results indicated moderate reduction in antisocial behaviors during small-group social skills instruction. (Contains…

The Influence of Treatment Motivation on Outcomes of Social Skills Training for Juvenile Delinquents

PubMed Central

van der Stouwe, Trudy; Asscher, Jessica J.; Hoeve, Machteld; van der Laan, Peter H.; Stams, Geert Jan J. M.

2016-01-01

This study examined the influence of treatment motivation on posttreatment effectiveness of an outpatient, individual social skills training for juvenile delinquents imposed as a penal sanction. Propensity score matching was used to match a control group of juveniles receiving treatment as usual (n = 108 of total N = 354) to a treatment group of juveniles receiving Tools4U, a social skills training with a parental component (N = 115). Treatment motivation was examined as a moderator and predictor of treatment effects on impulsivity, social perspective-taking, social problem-solving, lack of critical reasoning, developmental task-related skills, and parenting skills. Treatment effects were mostly consistent across juveniles with different levels of treatment motivation. Only one moderating effect was found on active tackling (i.e., actively addressing problems), and predictive effects were found on seeking social support, cognitive empathy, hostile intent attribution, and self-centeredness. Implications for further research are discussed. PMID:27225504

The Influence of Treatment Motivation on Outcomes of Social Skills Training for Juvenile Delinquents.

PubMed

van der Stouwe, Trudy; Asscher, Jessica J; Hoeve, Machteld; van der Laan, Peter H; Stams, Geert Jan J M

2018-01-01

This study examined the influence of treatment motivation on posttreatment effectiveness of an outpatient, individual social skills training for juvenile delinquents imposed as a penal sanction. Propensity score matching was used to match a control group of juveniles receiving treatment as usual ( n = 108 of total N = 354) to a treatment group of juveniles receiving Tools4U, a social skills training with a parental component ( N = 115). Treatment motivation was examined as a moderator and predictor of treatment effects on impulsivity, social perspective-taking, social problem-solving, lack of critical reasoning, developmental task-related skills, and parenting skills. Treatment effects were mostly consistent across juveniles with different levels of treatment motivation. Only one moderating effect was found on active tackling (i.e., actively addressing problems), and predictive effects were found on seeking social support, cognitive empathy, hostile intent attribution, and self-centeredness. Implications for further research are discussed.

Development of a Learning Model for Enhancing Social Skills on Elementary Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Traisorn, Rattanaporn; Soonthornrojana, Wimonrat; Chano, Jiraporn

2015-01-01

The goals of this study were: 1) to study the situation, problems and needs for a learning model to enhance the social skills of sixth grade students; 2) to develop a learning model that would address those needs; 3) to study the effectiveness of that learning model; 4) to compare performance on pretests and posttests of social skills; and 5) to…

In the Rearview Mirror: Social Skill Development in Deaf Youth, 1990-2015.

PubMed

Cawthon, Stephanie W; Fink, Bentley; Schoffstall, Sarah; Wendel, Erica

2018-01-01

Social skills are a vehicle by which individuals negotiate important relationships. The present article presents historical data on how social skills in deaf students were conceptualized and studied empirically during the period 1990-2015. Using a structured literature review approach, the researchers coded 266 articles for theoretical frameworks used and constructs studied. The vast majority of articles did not explicitly align with a specific theoretical framework. Of the 37 that did, most focused on socioemotional and cognitive frameworks, while a minority drew from frameworks focusing on attitudes, developmental theories, or ecological systems theory. In addition, 315 social-skill constructs were coded across the data set; the majority focused on socioemotional functioning. Trends in findings across the past quarter century and implications for research and practice are examined.

Development and evaluation of targeted psychological skills training for oncology nurses in managing stressful patient and family encounters.

PubMed

Traeger, Lara; Park, Elyse R; Sporn, Nora; Repper-DeLisi, Jennifer; Convery, Mary Susan; Jacobo, Michelle; Pirl, William F

2013-07-01

To reduce workplace stress by developing a brief psychological skills training for nurses and to evaluate program feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy in decreasing burnout and stress. Intervention development and evaluation. Outpatient chemotherapy unit at a comprehensive cancer center. 26 infusion nurses and oncology social workers. Focus groups were conducted with nurses. Results informed the development and evaluation of training for nurses. Participants completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory and Perceived Stress Scale post-training. Burnout and stress. Focus groups indicated strong commitment among nurses to psychosocial care and supported the idea that relationships with patients and families were sources of reward and stress. Stressors included factors that interfered with psychosocial care such as difficult family dynamics, patient behaviors and end-of-life care issues. Psychological skills training was developed to address these stressors. Evaluations suggested that the program was feasible and acceptable to nurses. At two months, participants showed reductions in emotional exhaustion (p = 0.02) and stress (p = 0.04). Psychological skills training for managing difficult encounters showed feasibility, acceptability, and potential benefit in reducing emotional exhaustion and stress. Brief training that targets sources of clinical stress may be useful for nurses in outpatient chemotherapy units. Specific stressors in relationships with patients and families present challenges to nurses' therapeutic use of self. Targeted psychological skills training may help nurses problem-solve difficult encounters while taking care of themselves. System-level strategies are needed to support and promote training participation.

Predicting Treatment Success in Social Skills Training for Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders: The UCLA Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Ya-Chih; Laugeson, Elizabeth A.; Gantman, Alexander; Ellingsen, Ruth; Frankel, Fred; Dillon, Ashley R.

2014-01-01

This study seeks to examine the predictors of positive social skills outcomes from the University of California, Los Angeles Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills, an evidence-based parent-assisted social skills program for high-functioning middle school and high school adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. The…

The relation between stressful life events and adjustment in elementary school children: the role of social support and social problem-solving skills.

PubMed

Dubow, E F; Tisak, J

1989-12-01

This study investigated the relation between stressful life events and adjustment in elementary school children, with particular emphasis on the potential main and stress-buffering effects of social support and social problem-solving skills. Third through fifth graders (N = 361) completed social support and social problem-solving measures. Their parents provided ratings of stress in the child's environment and ratings of the child's behavioral adjustment. Teachers provided ratings of the children's behavioral and academic adjustment. Hierarchical multiple regressions revealed significant stress-buffering effects for social support and problem-solving skills on teacher-rated behavior problems, that is, higher levels of social support and problem-solving skills moderated the relation between stressful life events and behavior problems. A similar stress-buffering effect was found for problem-solving skills on grade-point average and parent-rated behavior problems. In terms of children's competent behaviors, analyses supported a main effect model of social support and problem-solving. Possible processes accounting for the main and stress-buffering effects are discussed.

Comparing Student and Teacher Perceptions of the Importance of Social Skills in a Self-Contained Setting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morgan, Joseph John; Dobbins, Nicole; Hsiao, Yun-Ju; Brown, Nancy; Higgins, Kyle

2015-01-01

Implementation of social skills deemed appropriate for use in school is important for student success. Students with emotional and behavioral disorders often fail to use these social skills, requiring intervention to facilitate their use. Results related to social skills interventions have been mixed; one suggested reason for this is the lack of…

Using geo-targeted social media data to detect outdoor air pollution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, W.; Wang, Y.; Tsou, M. H.; Fu, X.

2016-06-01

Outdoor air pollution has become a more and more serious issue over recent years (He, 2014). Urban air quality is measured at air monitoring stations. Building air monitoring stations requires land, incurs costs and entails skilled technicians to maintain a station. Many countries do not have any monitoring stations and even lack any means to monitor air quality. Recent years, the social media could be used to monitor air quality dynamically (Wang, 2015; Mei, 2014). However, no studies have investigated the inter-correlations between real-space and cyberspace by examining variation in micro-blogging behaviors relative to changes in daily air quality. Thus, existing methods of monitoring AQI using micro-blogging data shows a high degree of error between real AQI and air quality as inferred from social media messages. In this paper, we introduce a new geo-targeted social media analytic method to (1) investigate the dynamic relationship between air pollution-related posts on Sina Weibo and daily AQI values; (2) apply Gradient Tree Boosting, a machine learning method, to monitor the dynamics of AQI using filtered social media messages. Our results expose the spatiotemporal relationships between social media messages and real-world environmental changes as well suggesting new ways to monitor air pollution using social media.

Moving Away from Social Work and Half Way Back Again: New Research on Skills in Probation

PubMed Central

Raynor, Peter; Vanstone, Maurice

2016-01-01

Research on social work in the criminal justice system was well represented in the social work literature until the 1990s. Since then, changes in the organisation, training and research base of probation practice, particularly in England and Wales, have all contributed to a separation between probation research and the mainstream social work research literature. However, recent probation research, by focusing on individual practice skills and on the quality of relationships, is producing findings which resonate with traditional social work concerns. The study presented here, based on analysis of videotaped interviews between probation staff and the people they are supervising, shows what skills are used and the effects of skilled supervision. People supervised by more skilled staff were significantly less likely to be reconvicted over a two-year follow-up, and the most effective supervisors combined good relationship skills with a range of ‘structuring’ or change-promoting skills. In effect, this can be regarded as a test of the impact of social work skills used by probation staff and suggests that a closer relationship between mainstream social work research and probation research could be productive for both. PMID:27559218

Video Modeling to Teach Social Safety Skills to Young Adults with Intellectual Disability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spivey, Corrine E.; Mechling, Linda C.

2016-01-01

This study evaluated the effectiveness of video modeling with a constant time delay procedure to teach social safety skills to three young women with intellectual disability. A multiple probe design across three social safety skills (responding to strangers who: requested personal information; requested money; and entered the participant's…

Skills for Social and Academic Success: A School-Based Intervention for Social Anxiety Disorder in Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fisher, Paige H.; Masia-Warner, Carrie; Klein, Rachel G.

2004-01-01

This paper describes Skills for Academic and Social Success (SASS), a cognitive-behavioral, school-based intervention for adolescents with social anxiety disorder. Clinic-based treatment studies for socially anxious youth are reviewed, and a strong rationale for transporting empirically-based interventions into schools, such as SASS, is provided.…

Social Skills Questionnaire for Argentinean College Students (SSQ-U) Development and Validation.

PubMed

Morán, Valeria E; Olaz, Fabián O; Del Prette, Zilda A P

2015-11-27

In this paper we present a new instrument called Social Skills Questionnaire for Argentinean College Students (SSQ-U). Based on the adapted version of the Social Skills Inventory - Del Prette (SSI-Del Prette) (Olaz, Medrano, Greco, & Del Prette, 2009), we wrote new items for the scale, and carried out psychometric analysis to assess the validity and reliability of the instrument. In the first study, we collected evidence based on test content through expert judges who evaluated the quality and the relevance of the items. In the second and third studies, we provided validity evidence based on the internal structure of the instrument using exploratory (n = 1067) and confirmatory (n = 661) factor analysis. Results suggested a five-factor structure consistent with the dimensions of social skills, as proposed by Kelly (2002). The fit indexes corresponding to the obtained model were adequate, and composite reliability coefficients of each factor were excellent (above .75). Finally, in the fourth study, we provided evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. The obtained results allow us to conclude that the SSQ-U is the first valid and reliable instrument for measuring social skills in Argentinean college students.

Emotional intelligence and social skills on self-efficacy in Secondary Education students. Are there gender differences?

PubMed

Salavera, Carlos; Usán, Pablo; Jarie, Laurane

2017-10-01

Self-efficacy affects our students' academic results, which may be related to people's social skills and emotional intelligence. This study included 1402 (50.71% males) Secondary Education Spanish students (12-17 years), and analysed the relation of self-efficacy with emotional intelligence and social skills. It showed how these constructs were related, and how the self-efficacy perceived by students varied according to their social skills and emotional intelligence. Gender did not influence self-efficacy, social skills and emotional intelligence. These variables showed similar correlation indices in females and males. Self-efficacy was related with social skills and emotional intelligence in Secondary Education students, but this relation was not gender-sensitive. More studies and research are needed to study and describe these variables according to gender from other perspectives. One proposal is to investigate the association between gender identity and self-efficacy and social skills and emotional intelligence to better understand how these constructs participate in adolescent development. Copyright © 2017 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Does Classmate Ability Influence Students' Social Skills?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gottfried, Michael A.

2015-01-01

Empirically, the link between classmate ability and individual-level student achievement has been established. And yet, within the scope of this body of literature, there is a dearth of studies examining if a relationship also persists between classmate ability and non-achievement outcomes--that is, social skills. This article fills this research…

Improving Student Behavior through Social Skills Instruction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cook, Staci; And Others

A program for improving student social skills was implemented in three classrooms of lower-class kindergarten and second grade students at two schools in order to reduce the number of behavior problems. Student behavior is a nationwide educational concern, and the problem of inappropriate behavior at the schools was documented by teacher…

Social Skill Development and Academic Competence in Children with and without Intellectual Disability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, Marina

2017-01-01

Social skills and academic competence are key factors influencing children's development and functioning across early childhood and through adolescence. There is a great need to understand the longitudinal patterns of growth in social and academic skills in order to further inform intervention, particularly for at-risk groups such as individuals…

Social Skills in Youth With Spina Bifida: A Longitudinal Multimethod Investigation Comparing Biopsychosocial Predictors.

PubMed

Holbein, Christina E; Peugh, James L; Holmbeck, Grayson N

2017-11-01

To examine the relative contributions of neuropsychological (attention and executive function), family (cohesion and conflict), and health (body mass index, lesion level, gross motor function) domains on social skills over time in youth with spina bifida (SB). In all, 140 youth with SB (T1 mean age = 11.43 years) and their families participated in the study at baseline with an additional visit 2 years later. Study variables were assessed with multiple methods (questionnaire, medical chart review, observation, neuropsychological tests) and reporters (parents, teachers). Multivariate hierarchical linear regressions determined the predictive power of the three domains for T2 social skills. Neuropsychological variables accounted for significant variance in mother- and father-reported T2 social skills. Neither family nor health variables contributed significantly to later social skills when other domains were included in the model. Neuropsychological factors are particularly important for social skill development in youth with SB. Findings can inform screening and intervention practices. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Pediatric Psychology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com

The effects of inquiry-based science on the social and communicative skills of students with low-incidence disabilities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

D'Angelo, Heather Hopkins

This research utilized inquiry based science as a vehicle to implement and maintain social skills training for secondary students, ages 14 to 20, with low-incidence disabilities in a self-contained classroom. This three year action research study examined the effects of an inquiry based science curriculum on the level and quantity of social skills used by students with one or more of the following challenges: significant learning disability (functioning more than two grade levels below grade level), emotional/social disability, mental retardation, Autism, and/or varying degrees of brain damage. Through the use of video recording, the students in the study were analyzed based on the level of social interaction and the amount of socialization that took place during inquiry based science. The skills sought were based on the social and communication skills earmarked in the students' weekly social skills training class and their Individualized Education Plans (IEP). Based on previous research in social skills training it has been determined that where social skills training is lacking are in the areas of transfer and maintenance of skills. Due to the natural social behavior that must take place in inquiry based science this group of students were found to exhibit gains in (1) quantity of social interactions on topic; (2) developing higher levels of social interactions (sharing, taking other's suggestions, listening and responding appropriately, etc.); and (3) maintenance of social skills taught outside of formal social skills training. These gains were seen overall in the amount of student involvement during inquiry based science verses teacher involvement. Such increases are depicted through students' verbal exchanges, excerpts from field notes, and student reflections. The findings of this research is expected to guide special educators, administrators and directors of curriculum as to how to better create curriculum for this specific population where social skills

Metacognition-oriented social skills training for individuals with long-term schizophrenia: methodology and clinical illustration.

PubMed

Ottavi, Paolo; D'Alia, Daria; Lysaker, Paul; Kent, Jerillyn; Popolo, Raffaele; Salvatore, Giampaolo; Dimaggio, Giancarlo

2014-01-01

There is much evidence indicating the presence of social deficits in schizophrenia and the detrimental effect of these deficits on global functioning in this population. As a result, social skills training (SST) has emerged as a legitimate psychosocial treatment, although effectiveness research has revealed small effect sizes and limited generalizability regarding the benefits of this treatment. In light of the strong evidence of metacognitive deficits in schizophrenia and the importance of metacognition to successful social functioning, we propose a novel therapeutic intervention wherein metacognitive remediation is integrated into SST: metacognition-oriented social skills training (MOSST). In the current paper, we present MOSST, an adapted SST programme wherein clients are also encouraged to have mindful contact with their own thoughts and to better consider and understand the mental states of others as well as the connection between mental states and behaviour. We present a case wherein an individual with schizophrenia successfully completed the MOSST programme. We outline directions for future research, starting with the logical next step of empirically testing the efficacy of MOSST. Currently social skills training is considered to be the elected psychosocial treatment for people affected by schizophrenia, although evidence indicates limited benefits. People with schizophrenia have metacognitive deficits, which interfere with proper social functioning. A metacognitive-oriented social skills training (MOSST) intervention has been developed by the authors.A treatment such as MOSST, which integrates social skills training and metacognitive training, promises to improve social skills through improving the metacognition. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Assessment of the Prosocial Behaviors of Young Children with Regard to Social Development, Social Skills, Parental Acceptance-Rejection and Peer Relationships

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gulay, Hulya

2011-01-01

The aim of the study was prosocial behaviors of 5-6 years old children were investigated with regard to parental acceptance-rejection, peer relationships, general social development and social skills. The participants of the study included 277 5-6-year-old Turkish children and their parents. The Child Behavior Scale, Social Skills Form, Marmara…

Social Skills and Problem Solving Abilities in a Middle School Advisory Setting.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ahrens, Susan; Barrett, C. Elise; Holtzman, Debi

This research project implemented and evaluated a program in interpersonal skill development designed to increase the use of applied social skills at a middle school located in northeast Illinois. Evidence of inappropriate interpersonal skills was gathered by using observation checklists, teacher and student surveys, and discipline referrals.…

Promoting Social Communication in a Child with Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Handley, Roderick D.; Radley, Keith C.; Lum, John D. K.

2016-01-01

Social difficulties represent a major area of concern in children with specific language impairment (SLI). Social skills interventions targeting communication or language skills of children with SLI have been generally ineffective. The current study tested the efficacy of a social skills intervention consisting of multiple behavioral interventions…

Social-Emotional Correlates of Early Stage Social Information Processing Skills in Children With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder.

PubMed

Russo-Ponsaran, Nicole M; McKown, Clark; Johnson, Jason K; Allen, Adelaide W; Evans-Smith, Bernadette; Fogg, Louis

2015-10-01

Difficulty processing social information is a defining feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Yet the failure of children with ASD to process social information effectively is poorly understood. Using Crick and Dodge's model of social information processing (SIP), this study examined the relationship between social-emotional (SE) skills of pragmatic language, theory of mind, and emotion recognition on the one hand, and early stage SIP skills of problem identification and goal generation on the other. The study included a sample of school-aged children with and without ASD. SIP was assessed using hypothetical social situations in the context of a semistructured scenario-based interview. Pragmatic language, theory of mind, and emotion recognition were measured using direct assessments. Social thinking differences between children with and without ASD are largely differences of quantity (overall lower performance in ASD), not discrepancies in cognitive processing patterns. These data support theoretical models of the relationship between SE skills and SIP. Findings have implications for understanding the mechanisms giving rise to SIP deficits in ASD and may ultimately inform treatment development for children with ASD. © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Group Social Skills Interventions for Adults with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Systematic Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spain, Debbie; Blainey, Sarah H.

2015-01-01

Autism spectrum disorders are characterised by impairments in communication and social interaction. Social skills interventions have been found to ameliorate socio-communication deficits in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. Little is known about the effectiveness of social skills interventions for adults with…

Parents Perceive Improvements in Socio-emotional Functioning in Adolescents with ASD Following Social Skills Treatment.

PubMed

N Lordo, Danielle; Bertolin, Madison; L Sudikoff, Eliana; Keith, Cierra; Braddock, Barbara; Kaufman, David A S

2017-01-01

The current study examined the effectiveness of a social skills treatment (PEERS) for improving socio-emotional competencies in a sample of high-functioning adolescents with ASD. Neuropsychological and self- and parent-report measures assessing social, emotional, and behavioral functioning were administered before and after treatment. Following social skills treatment, adolescents with ASD exhibited decreased aggression, anxiety, and withdrawal, as well as improvements in emotional responsiveness, adaptability, leadership, and participation in activities of daily living, though no change was found in affect recognition abilities. These findings suggest that PEERS social skills treatment improves particular aspects of emotional, behavioral, and social functioning that may be necessary for developing and maintaining quality peer relationships and remediating social isolation in adolescents with ASD.

Teaching Social Communication Skills Using a Cool versus Not Cool Procedure plus Role-Playing and a Social Skills Taxonomy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leaf, Justin B.; Taubman, Mitchell; Milne, Christine; Dale, Stephanie; Leaf, Jeremy; Townley-Cochran, Donna; Tsuji, Kathleen; Kassardjian, Alyne; Alcalay, Aditt; Leaf, Ronald; McEachin, John

2016-01-01

We utilized a cool versus not cool procedure plus role-playing to teach social communication skills to three individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. The cool versus not cool procedure plus role-playing consisted of the researcher randomly demonstrating the behavior correctly (cool) two times and the behavior incorrectly (not cool) two…

An Evaluation of Behavioral Skills Training for Teaching Caregivers How to Support Social Skill Development in Their Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

PubMed

Hassan, Mahfuz; Simpson, Andrea; Danaher, Katey; Haesen, James; Makela, Tanya; Thomson, Kendra

2018-06-01

Limited research has explored how to best train caregivers to support their child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) despite caregivers being well suited to promote generalization and maintenance of their child's skills in the natural environment. Children with ASD have been shown to benefit from social skill training, which is not always conducted in the natural context. This research examined the efficacy of behavioral skills training (BST) with, and without in situ training (IST), for teaching caregivers how to also use BST to support their child's context-specific social skills. Although caregivers met mastery criterion within BST sessions, their skills did not generalize to the natural environment until IST was introduced. The implications of the findings are discussed.

d-Cycloserine enhances durability of social skills training in autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Wink, Logan K; Minshawi, Noha F; Shaffer, Rebecca C; Plawecki, Martin H; Posey, David J; Horn, Paul S; Adams, Ryan; Pedapati, Ernest V; Schaefer, Tori L; McDougle, Christopher J; Swiezy, Naomi B; Erickson, Craig A

2017-01-01

d-Cycloserine (DCS) enhances extinction learning across species, but it has proven challenging to identify consistent benefit of DCS when added to therapeutic interventions. We conducted a placebo-controlled trial of DCS to potentiate social skills training in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) but found substantial improvement in both the DCS and placebo groups at the conclusion of active treatment. Here, we assess the impact of DCS 11 weeks following active treatment to evaluate the impact of DCS on treatment response durability. Study participants included 60 outpatient youth with ASD, ages 5-11 years, all with IQ above 70, and significantly impaired social functioning who completed a 10-week active treatment phase during which they received weekly single doses of 50 mg of DCS or placebo administered 30 min prior to group social skills training. Following the 10-week active treatment phase, blinded follow-up assessments occurred at week 11 and week 22. The primary outcome measure for our durability of treatment evaluation was the parent-rated social responsiveness scale (SRS) total raw score at week 22. Analysis of the SRS total raw score demonstrated significant decrease for the DCS group compared to the placebo group ( p  = 0.042) indicating greater maintenance of treatment effect in the DCS group. DCS was well tolerated, with irritability being the most frequently reported adverse effect in both groups. The findings of this study suggest that DCS may help youth with ASD to maintain skills gained during sort-term social skills training. Larger-scale studies with longer follow-up will be necessary to further understand the long-term impact of DCS paired with structured social skills training. ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01086475.

Effect of a classroom-based intervention on the social skills of pupils with intellectual disability in Southwest Nigeria.

PubMed

Adeniyi, Yetunde C; Omigbodun, Olayinka O

2016-01-01

Studies have demonstrated that social skill interventions and classroom supports are effective for pupils with intellectual disability. Such interventions have been demonstrated to reduce the risk of developing mental disorders, majority of which have their onset during the period of youth. Most young people with intellectual disability in low-resource settings do not have access to interventions that would enable or enhance their participation in society. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a social skills training for pupils with intellectual disability attending a special school in Southwest Nigeria. Thirty pupils with mild to moderate intellectual disability participated in the study. Utilising the Explore social skills curriculum, teachers were trained to give lessons to the participants 3-4 times a week for 8 weeks in their classrooms. Social skills level of participants was assessed with the Matson evaluation of social skills for individuals with severe retardation (MESSIER) at baseline and immediately after the intervention. Paired t tests, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, Mann-Whitney U test and the Kruskal-Wallis Test were used to assess for pre and post intervention changes in social skills scores and analysis of changes in social skills across socio-demographic variables at p < 0.05. The mean age of the participants was 15.70 ± 1.89 years. At baseline, 18 of the participants (63.3 %) had moderate social skills impairment, 2 (6.7 %) had none or minimal impairments and 10 (30 %) had severe impairments. At the end of the intervention, there was a 20 % reduction in the number of participants in the severe social skills impairment category and 13.3 % increase in the number of participants in the 'none or minimal' social skills category. The mean pre and post- intervention total social skills scores were 126.63 ± 17.91 and 135.97 ± 20.81 respectively with a mean difference of 9.34 (t = 3.71; p = 0.001). The social skills of

Extracurricular Activities and the Development of Social Skills in Children with Intellectual and Specific Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brooks, B. A.; Floyd, F.; Robins, D. L.; Chan, W. Y.

2015-01-01

Background: Children with intellectual disability and specific learning disabilities often lack age-appropriate social skills, which disrupts their social functioning. Because of the limited effectiveness of classroom mainstreaming and social skills training for these children, it is important to explore alternative opportunities for social skill…

Social Skills Scores: The Impact of Primary School Population Characteristics and Parental Involvement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dekker, Karien; Kamerling, Margje

2017-01-01

Purpose: The paper aims to examine to what extent and why parental involvement as well as characteristics of ethnic school population influence social skills scores (social position, behavioural skills) of students. Design/methodology/approach: The study used the COOL5-18 database (2010) that included 553 Dutch primary schools and nearly 38,000…

Music therapy: An effective approach in improving social skills of children with autism.

PubMed

Ghasemtabar, Seyyed Nabiollah; Hosseini, Mahbubeh; Fayyaz, Irandokht; Arab, Saeid; Naghashian, Hamed; Poudineh, Zahra

2015-01-01

The existing methodological weakness in conducted researches concerning music therapy (MT) for children with autism led to ambiguity and confusion in this scope of studies. The aim of the present research is to identify the effectiveness of MT method in improving social skills of children with autism and its stability, as well. In the form of a clinical trial study with design of pretest/posttest/follow-up with control group, among the children with autism in community of Tehran city, on the basis of childhood autism rating scale, 27 children with mild to moderate autism were chosen and were divided into two groups of experiment (n = 13), and control (n = 14). Social skills' level of both groups was measured and recorded with the help of social skills rating system scale. The children of the experiment group participated in MT programs of Orff-Schulwerk for 45 days in 12 sessions (two sessions of 1-h/week), whereas the control group received no intervention. The data were analyzed with Statistic Package For Social Science (SPSS) software t-test and analysis of covariance was used to compare groups. In posttest, the results of covariance analysis showed a significant increase in social skills' scores of the experiment group (P < 0.001). Also, results of the paired-sample t-test showed that the effectiveness of MT has been persistent up to the follow-up phase. The study showed that MT is an effective method with deep and consistent effects on improving social skills of children with autism.

(Social) Cognitive Skills and Social Information Processing in Children with Mild to Borderline Intellectual Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Nieuwenhuijzen, M.; Vriens, A.

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the unique contributions of (social) cognitive skills such as inhibition, working memory, perspective taking, facial emotion recognition, and interpretation of situations to the variance in social information processing in children with mild to borderline intellectual disabilities. Respondents were 79…

Developing Social Skills of Students with Additional Needs within the Context of the Australian Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davies, Michael; Cooper, Greta; Kettler, Ryan J.; Elliott, Stephen N.

2015-01-01

Decades of research on social skills assessment and intervention indicates the importance of social skills in improving academic achievement. Additionally, a strong evidence base promotes the inclusion of social-emotional learning into the whole school curriculum. In recognition of this evidence, the new Australian Curriculum, under Personal and…

Targeting clinical outcomes: Endovascular simulation improves diagnostic coronary angiography skills.

PubMed

Schimmel, Daniel R; Sweis, Ranya; Cohen, Elaine R; Davidson, Charles; Wayne, Diane B

2016-02-15

The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of simulation-based medical education (SBME) on the skills required to perform coronary angiography in the cardiac catheterization laboratory. Cardiovascular fellows commonly learn invasive procedures on patients. Because this approach is not standardized, it can result in inconsistent skill acquisition through exclusion of concepts and skills. Also, the learning curve varies between trainees yielding variability in skill acquisition. Therefore, coronary angiography skills are an excellent target for SBME in an environment in which direct patient care is not jeopardized. From January 2013 to June 2013, 14 cardiovascular fellows entering the cardiac catheterization laboratory at a tertiary care teaching hospital were tested on an endovascular simulator to assess baseline skills. All fellows subsequently underwent didactic teaching and preceptor-lead training on the endovascular simulator. Topics included basic catheterization skills and a review of catheterization laboratory systems. Following training, all fellows underwent a post-training assessment on the endovascular simulator. Paired t tests were used to compare items on the skills checklist and simulator defined variables. Cardiovascular fellows scored significantly higher on a diagnostic coronary angiography skills checklist following SBME using an endovascular simulator. The mean pretest score was 66.6% (SD = 9.7%) compared to 86.0% (SD = 6.3%) following simulator training (P < 0.001). Additional findings include significant reduction in procedure time and use of cine-fluoroscopy at posttest. SBME significantly improved cardiovascular fellows' performance of simulated coronary angiography skills. Standardized simulation-based education is a valuable adjunct to traditional clinical education for cardiovascular fellows. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Social Skills Problems of Victims of Bullying: Self, Peer and Teacher Perceptions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fox, Claire L.; Boulton, Michael J.

2005-01-01

Background: A small number of prior studies have found that victims of school bullying tend to exhibit poor social skills. Few of these have examined this issue from multiple perspectives, and there has been a focus on a restricted range of social skills. Aims: To determine the extent to which self, peers, and teachers regard victims as having…

Encouraging Connections: Integrating Expressive Art and Drama into Therapeutic Social Skills Training with Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lenz, A. Stephen; Holman, Rachel L.; Dominguez, Denise L.

2010-01-01

The effective use of social skills has been positively associated with career success, romantic involvement, academic achievement, and mood. In response, counselors often integrate social skills training into counseling interventions with adolescents to encourage authentic and effective interactions with others. We illustrate some therapeutic…

Nuancing the role of social skills- a longitudinal study of early maternal psychological distress and adolescent depressive symptoms.

PubMed

Nilsen, Wendy; Karevold, Evalill Bølstad; Kaasbøll, Jannike; Kjeldsen, Anne

2018-04-10

Social skills might play an important role for the relationship between maternal psychological distress and subsequent development of depressive symptoms. The majority perspective is that social skills is adaptive and protective, but there is a need to also highlight the potential maladaptive effect of social skills in some settings or for some sub groups. The current study examined the longitudinal interplay between maternal-reported psychological distress in early childhood (age 1.5), and offspring reports on social skills and depressive symptoms in early (age 12.5) and middle adolescence (age 14.5). We used data from the Tracking Opportunities and Problems Study (TOPP), a community-based longitudinal study following Norwegian families to examine direct links and interactions between early maternal distress (measured with the Hopkins Symptom Checklist) and early adolescent offspring social skills (measured with the Social Skills Rating System) and middle adolescent depressive symptoms (measured with the Moods and Feelings Questionnaire) in 370 families (in total 740 mothers and adolescents). Exposure to childhood maternal distress predicted offspring depressive symptoms in middle adolescence. Higher social skills in early adolescence predicted lower levels of depressive symptoms for girls, but not for boys, in middle adolescence. An interaction effect was found in which adolescents exposed to early maternal distress who reported high social skills in early adolescence had the highest level of depressive symptoms in middle adolescence. The findings highlight the nuances in the role of social skills for adolescent depressive symptoms - having the potential to be both adaptive as well as maladaptive for some subgroups (those experiencing maternal psychological distress). This has important implications for social skill programs.

A Multidimensional Needs Assessment of Social Emotional Learning Skill Areas

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yopp, Ashley; McKim, Billy R.; Moore, Lori L.; Odom, Summer F.; Hanagriff, Roger

2017-01-01

Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) has often been an umbrella term for a wide range of competencies, including emotional processes, social and interpersonal skills, and cognitive regulation (Jones, Bouffard, & Weissbourd, 2013). We used the Borich (1980) needs assessment model to assess the professional development needs of Texas agricultural…

Social skills deficits as a mediator between PTSD symptoms and intimate partner aggression in returning veterans.

PubMed

LaMotte, Adam D; Taft, Casey T; Weatherill, Robin P; Eckhardt, Christopher I

2017-02-01

This study examined social skills deficits as a mediator of the relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and use of intimate partner aggression (IPA) among returning veterans. Prior research with veterans has focused on PTSD-related deficits at the decoding stage of McFall's (1982) social information processing model, and the current study adds to this literature by examining social skills deficits at the decision stage. Participants were 92 male veterans recruited from the greater Boston area. PTSD symptoms were assessed through clinician interview, IPA use was assessed through self- and partner report, and social skills deficits were assessed in a laboratory task in which veterans listened to a series of problematic marital situations and responded with what they would say or do in the situation. Responses were coded for social competency. Bivariate correlations revealed several significant associations among PTSD symptoms, social skills deficits, and use of IPA. When all PTSD symptom clusters were entered into a regression predicting social skills deficits, only emotional numbing emerged as a unique predictor. Finally, social skills deficits significantly mediated the relationship between veterans' PTSD symptoms and use of psychological (but not physical) IPA. Findings extend prior research on McFall's (1982) social information processing model as it relates to veterans' PTSD symptoms and use of IPA. More research is needed to understand the associations between PTSD symptoms and deficits at each individual step of this model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Process Induction: Researching Skills Development across the Social Studies Curriculum. Middle Grades.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peters, Richard O.

This document discusses the use of process induction and the proactive action model to teach research skills across the social studies curriculum. Process induction is the ability of an individual to transfer schema related knowledge and skills to other situations and settings, to use knowledge and process skills in new and diverse instances to…

Neurocognition and social skill in older persons with schizophrenia and major mood disorders: An analysis of gender and diagnosis effects

PubMed Central

Mueser, Kim T.; Pratt, Sarah I.; Bartels, Stephen J.; Forester, Brent; Wolfe, Rosemarie; Cather, Corinne

2010-01-01

Effective social interactions necessary for getting affiliative and instrumental needs met require the smooth integration of social skills, including verbal, non-verbal, and paralinguistic behaviors. Schizophrenia is characterized by prominent impairments in social and role functioning, and research on younger individuals with the illness has shown that social skills deficits are both common and distinguish the disease from other psychiatric disorders. However, less research has focused on diagnostic differences and correlates of social skills in older persons with schizophrenia. To address this question, we examined diagnostic and gender differences in social skills in a community-dwelling sample of 183 people older than age 50 with severe mental illness, and the relationships between social skills and neurocognitive functioning, symptoms, and social contact. Individuals with schizophrenia had worse social skills than those with bipolar disorder or major depression, with people with schizoaffective disorder in between. Social contact and cognitive functioning, especially executive functions and verbal fluency, were strongly predictive of social skills in people with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, but not those with mood disorder. Other than blunted affect, symptoms were not predictive of social skills in either the schizophrenia spectrum or the mood disorder group. Older age was associated with worse social skills in both groups, whereas female gender was related to better skills in the mood disorder group, but not the schizophrenia group. The findings suggest that poor social skills, which are related to the cognitive impairment associated with the illness, are a fundamental feature of schizophrenia that persists from the onset of the illness into older age. PMID:21113403

Neurocognition and social skill in older persons with schizophrenia and major mood disorders: An analysis of gender and diagnosis effects.

PubMed

Mueser, Kim T; Pratt, Sarah I; Bartels, Stephen J; Forester, Brent; Wolfe, Rosemarie; Cather, Corinne

2010-05-01

Effective social interactions necessary for getting affiliative and instrumental needs met require the smooth integration of social skills, including verbal, non-verbal, and paralinguistic behaviors. Schizophrenia is characterized by prominent impairments in social and role functioning, and research on younger individuals with the illness has shown that social skills deficits are both common and distinguish the disease from other psychiatric disorders. However, less research has focused on diagnostic differences and correlates of social skills in older persons with schizophrenia. To address this question, we examined diagnostic and gender differences in social skills in a community-dwelling sample of 183 people older than age 50 with severe mental illness, and the relationships between social skills and neurocognitive functioning, symptoms, and social contact.Individuals with schizophrenia had worse social skills than those with bipolar disorder or major depression, with people with schizoaffective disorder in between. Social contact and cognitive functioning, especially executive functions and verbal fluency, were strongly predictive of social skills in people with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, but not those with mood disorder. Other than blunted affect, symptoms were not predictive of social skills in either the schizophrenia spectrum or the mood disorder group. Older age was associated with worse social skills in both groups, whereas female gender was related to better skills in the mood disorder group, but not the schizophrenia group. The findings suggest that poor social skills, which are related to the cognitive impairment associated with the illness, are a fundamental feature of schizophrenia that persists from the onset of the illness into older age.

The Effects of a Social Skills Training Package on Social Engagement of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders in a Generalized Recess Setting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Radley, Keith C.; Ford, W. Blake; Battaglia, Allison A.; McHugh, Melissa B.

2014-01-01

The present study provides a preliminary evaluation of the effects of the Superheroes Social Skills program, a practice-ready, multimedia social skills program, on social engagements of elementary-age children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Four children with ASD between the ages of 8 and 10 with current placements in inclusive public…

Early-Emerging Social Adaptive Skills in Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorders: An Item Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ventola, Pamela; Saulnier, Celine A.; Steinberg, Elizabeth; Chawarska, Katarzyna; Klin, Ami

2014-01-01

Individuals with ASD have significant impairments in adaptive skills, particularly adaptive socialization skills. The present study examined the extent to which 20 items from the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-Socialization Domain differentiated between ASD and developmentally delayed (DD) groups. Participants included 108 toddlers with ASD or…

Check-In Check-Out + Social Skills: Enhancing the Effects of Check-In Check-Out for Students With Social Skill Deficits

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ross, Scott W.; Sabey, Christian V.

2015-01-01

Check-In Check-Out is a Tier 2 intervention designed to reduce problem behavior and increase prosocial behavior. Although the intervention has demonstrated effects in several studies, few research efforts have considered how the intervention can be modified to support students with social skill deficits. Through a multiple baseline design across…

Investigation of the Relationship between Communication Skills, Social Competence and Emotion Regulation Skills of Preschool Children in Turkey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dagal, A. B.

2017-01-01

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between communication skills, social competence and emotion regulation skills of preschool children. Children attending public primary schools who were 53 to 80 months old from the middle socio-economic class were chosen randomly from Istanbul City center districts for this study. They were…

Social Skills of Slovenian Primary School Students with Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schmidt, Majda; Prah, Alenka; Cagran, Branka

2014-01-01

Social skills of students with special needs play a very important role in their successful integration into inclusive learning environments. The aim of present empirical research was to establish whether students with learning disabilities (LD) attending grades 7-9 of regular primary school in Slovenia experience difficulties in social skills…

Social Validation of the New England Center for Children-Core Skills Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dickson, Chata A.; MacDonald, Rebecca P. F.; Mansfield, Renee; Guilhardi, Paulo; Johnson, Cammarie; Ahearn, William H.

2014-01-01

We investigated the social validity of the NECC Core Skills Assessment (NECC-CSA) with parents and professionals as participants. The NECC-CSA is a measurement tool consisting of direct and indirect measures of skills important to all individuals with autism, across the lifespan. Participants (N = 245) were provided with a list of 66 skills, 47 of…

Using Multimodal Social-Skills Groups with Kindergarten Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stickel, Sue A.

1990-01-01

Describes a group social skills counseling strategy for kindergarten children based on Lazarus's seven modalities: behavior, affect, sensation, imagery, cognition, interpersonal relationships, and drugs/biology. Concludes multimodal approach seems suited to needs of young child whose emerging awareness is vitally engaged in each of the seven…

Aural rehabilitation in children with cochlear implants: a study of cognition, social communication, and motor skill development.

PubMed

Jeddi, Zahra; Jafari, Zahra; Motasaddi Zarandy, Masoud; Kassani, Aziz

2014-03-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the benefits of aural rehabilitation on the development of cognition, social communication, and motor skills in children with cochlear implants. The study examined the development of cognition, social communication, and motor skills in 15 deaf children (7 males, 8 females; mean age 45 months 27 days) using the Newsha Developmental Scale before they received the cochlear implants, and then again 2, 4, 6, and 8 months after the implantation. The developmental age, Pretest Developmental Rate, Intervention Efficiency Index, and Proportional Change Index were calculated for each skill. There were significant differences between the preintervention and four follow-up Developmental Rate assessments for cognition, social communication, and motor skills (P < 0.0001). Significant differences were also observed between the four follow-up Proportional Change Index assessments for cognition, social communication, and motor skills (P ≤ 0.005). Cochlear implantation and aural rehabilitation may result in accelerated rates of cognition, social communication, and motor skill development in deaf children.

Neuropsychological predictors of performance-based measures of functional capacity and social skills in individuals with severe mental illness.

PubMed

Mahmood, Zanjbeel; Burton, Cynthia Z; Vella, Lea; Twamley, Elizabeth W

2018-04-13

Neuropsychological abilities may underlie successful performance of everyday functioning and social skills. We aimed to determine the strongest neuropsychological predictors of performance-based functional capacity and social skills performance across the spectrum of severe mental illness (SMI). Unemployed outpatients with SMI (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression; n = 151) were administered neuropsychological (expanded MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery), functional capacity (UCSD Performance-Based Skills Assessment-Brief; UPSA-B), and social skills (Social Skills Performance Assessment; SSPA) assessments. Bivariate correlations between neuropsychological performance and UPSA-B and SSPA total scores showed that most neuropsychological tests were significantly associated with each performance-based measure. Forward entry stepwise regression analyses were conducted entering education, diagnosis, symptom severity, and neuropsychological performance as predictors of functional capacity and social skills. Diagnosis, working memory, sustained attention, and category and letter fluency emerged as significant predictors of functional capacity, in a model that explained 43% of the variance. Negative symptoms, sustained attention, and letter fluency were significant predictors of social skill performance, in a model explaining 35% of the variance. Functional capacity is positively associated with neuropsychological functioning, but diagnosis remains strongly influential, with mood disorder participants outperforming those with psychosis. Social skill performance appears to be positively associated with sustained attention and verbal fluency regardless of diagnosis; however, negative symptom severity strongly predicts social skills performance. Improving neuropsychological functioning may improve psychosocial functioning in people with SMI. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Social Skills Interventions for Students with Challenging Behavior: Evaluating the Quality of the Evidence Base

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hutchins, Nancy S.; Burke, Mack D.; Hatton, Heather; Bowman-Perrott, Lisa

2017-01-01

This study provides results on a methodological quality review of the single-case research literature from 1998 to 2014 on the use of social skills interventions for students with challenging behavior. A systematic review of the social skills literature was conducted with the intent of updating the Mathur et al. study of social skills…

Social Competence and Language Skills in Mandarin-English Bilingual Preschoolers: The Moderation Effect of Emotion Regulation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ren, Yonggang; Wyver, Shirley; Xu Rattanasone, Nan; Demuth, Katherine

2016-01-01

Research Findings: The main aim of this study was to examine whether language skills and emotion regulation are associated with social competence and whether the relationship between English skills and social competence is moderated by emotion regulation in Mandarin-English bilingual preschoolers. The language skills of 96 children ages…

An Exploration of a Community-Based LEGO® Social-Skills Program for Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacCormack, Jeffrey W. H.; Matheson, Ian A.; Hutchinson, Nancy L.

2015-01-01

Clinical interventions have been effective at increasing social skills of youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, generalization of those skills to non-clinical environments is often low. To reduce this generalization gap, community-based programs have been designed to help youth develop social skills in naturalistic settings. This…

Development of a Social Skills Assessment Screening Scale for Psychiatric Rehabilitation Settings: A Pilot Study.

PubMed

Bhola, Poornima; Basavarajappa, Chethan; Guruprasad, Deepti; Hegde, Gayatri; Khanam, Fatema; Thirthalli, Jagadisha; Chaturvedi, Santosh K

2016-01-01

Deficits in social skills may present in a range of psychiatric disorders, particularly in the more serious and persistent conditions, and have an influence on functioning across various domains. This pilot study aimed at developing a brief measure, for structured evaluation and screening for social skills deficits, which can be easily integrated into routine clinical practice. The sample consisted of 380 inpatients and their accompanying caregivers, referred to Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services at a tertiary care government psychiatric hospital. The evaluation included an Inpatient intake Proforma and the 20-item Social Skills Assessment Screening Scale (SSASS). Disability was assessed using the Indian Disability Evaluation and Assessment Scale (IDEAS) for a subset of 94 inpatients. The analysis included means and standard deviations, frequency and percentages, Cronbach's alpha to assess internal consistency, t -tests to assess differences in social skills deficits between select subgroups, and correlation between SSASS and IDEAS scores. The results indicated the profile of social skills deficits assessed among the inpatients with varied psychiatric diagnoses. The "psychosis" group exhibited significantly higher deficits than the "mood disorder" group. Results indicated high internal consistency of the SSASS and adequate criterion validity demonstrated by correlations with select IDEAS domains. Modifications were made to the SSASS following the pilot study. The SSASS has potential value as a measure for screening and individualised intervention plans for social skills training in mental health and rehabilitation settings. The implications for future work on the psychometric properties and clinical applications are discussed.

Do competence skills moderate the impact of social influences to drink and perceived social benefits of drinking on alcohol use among inner-city adolescents?

PubMed

Epstein, Jennifer A; Zhou, Xi Kathy; Bang, Heejung; Botvin, Gilbert J

2007-03-01

Only a few studies have found competence skills to be a protective factor against adolescent alcohol use; others did not find a direct effect on alcohol. A possible reason for this is that competence skills may moderate the effects of risk factors for alcohol use and that aspect has not been examined often or in a longitudinal design. This study tested whether several competence skills served either as direct protective factors against alcohol use or moderators of the impact of social risk factors on alcohol use. Participants (N = 1318) completed questionnaires that included measures of decision-making skills, refusal skill techniques, resisting media influences, friends' drinking and perceived social benefits of drinking, as well as current drinking amount and future drinking at baseline, one-year follow-up and two-year follow-up. Data analyses were conducted using multi-level mixed effects generalized linear models with random intercept. All the competence skills and the risk factors predicted current and future drinking. Several significant interactions were found between (1) perceived social benefits of drinking and decision-making skills, (2) perceived social benefits of drinking and refusal skill techniques and (3) friends' drinking and refusal skill techniques. Competence skills served as protective factors, as well as moderators. One possible reason that competence enhancement approaches to alcohol prevention are effective may be due to the inclusion of the competence skills component.

Power and the objectification of social targets.

PubMed

Gruenfeld, Deborah H; Inesi, M Ena; Magee, Joe C; Galinsky, Adam D

2008-07-01

Objectification has been defined historically as a process of subjugation whereby people, like objects, are treated as means to an end. The authors hypothesized that objectification is a response to social power that involves approaching useful social targets regardless of the value of their other human qualities. Six studies found that under conditions of power, approach toward a social target was driven more by the target's usefulness, defined in terms of the perceiver's goals, than in low-power and baseline conditions. This instrumental response to power, which was linked to the presence of an active goal, was observed using multiple instantiations of power, different measures of approach, a variety of goals, and several types of instrumental and noninstrumental target attributes. Implications for research on the psychology of power, automatic goal pursuit, and self-objectification theory are discussed.

Humans have evolved specialized skills of social cognition: the cultural intelligence hypothesis.

PubMed

Herrmann, Esther; Call, Josep; Hernàndez-Lloreda, Maráa Victoria; Hare, Brian; Tomasello, Michael

2007-09-07

Humans have many cognitive skills not possessed by their nearest primate relatives. The cultural intelligence hypothesis argues that this is mainly due to a species-specific set of social-cognitive skills, emerging early in ontogeny, for participating and exchanging knowledge in cultural groups. We tested this hypothesis by giving a comprehensive battery of cognitive tests to large numbers of two of humans' closest primate relatives, chimpanzees and orangutans, as well as to 2.5-year-old human children before literacy and schooling. Supporting the cultural intelligence hypothesis and contradicting the hypothesis that humans simply have more "general intelligence," we found that the children and chimpanzees had very similar cognitive skills for dealing with the physical world but that the children had more sophisticated cognitive skills than either of the ape species for dealing with the social world.

Re-counting 'illiteracy': literacy skills in the sociology of social inequality.

PubMed

Payne, Geoff

2006-06-01

Recent media reports have repeated claims that there are very large numbers of illiterate people in Britain, seven million adults being the most common figure. The moral panic this engendered has helped to justify educational initiatives and greater public spending on basic skills. However, a closer investigation of definitions and measurements of illiteracy in major national studies reveals the peculiarity of this social construction of illiteracy. Not least, it is argued that the numbers actually suffering significant literacy deficits are much lower than reported. Partly because British sociology has given literacy little attention (despite the advent of the 'New Literacy Studies'), official accounts of illiteracy remain unduly 'normative', seriously under-estimating cultural differences like gender, ethnicity and class. A new classification of low literacy skills is proposed, with the intention of demonstrating connections with structural accounts of social inequality and sociological theory. Low levels of literacy skill remain important because they are related to other forms of social inequality, even when the number of people disadvantaged in this way is much smaller than previously claimed.

Parenting Styles and Children's Social Skills as Perceived by Jordanian Mothers of Preschool Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abu Taleb, Tagreed Fathi

2013-01-01

This study examined the perceived parenting styles in a sample of Jordanian mothers and their perceptions of the social skills exhibited by their preschool children. The sample consisted of 802 ("N"=802) mothers who responded to a three-part questionnaire: demographic information, parenting styles, and social skills. The results of this…

A "Tools for Teachers" Approach for Infusing Social Skills Instruction into Daily Teaching Activities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leffert, James S.; Brady, Mary E.; Siperstein, Gary N.

2009-01-01

Students participate in a "social community" of learners. For children with learning problems, mastering the skills needed to actively participate in this community can be a challenge. How can teachers find time to provide social skills instruction, given the pressures to teach academic subjects first and foremost? This article shows school…

Developing Preschoolers' Social Skills: The Effectiveness of Two Educational Methods

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smogorzewska, Joanna; Szumski, Grzegorz

2018-01-01

This study tested whether and how methods called 'Play Time/Social Time' and 'I Can Problem Solve' contribute to the improvement of social skills and the development of theory of mind (ToM) in children. The participants in the experiment were nearly 200 (N = 196) preschool children with low social functioning, with and without disabilities. The…

A Replication and Extension of the PEERS® for Young Adults Social Skills Intervention: Examining Effects on Social Skills and Social Anxiety in Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

PubMed Central

McVey, Alana J.; Dolan, Bridget K.; Willar, Kirsten S.; Pleiss, Sheryl; Karst, Jeffrey S.; Casnar, Christina L.; Caiozzo, Christina; Vogt, Elisabeth M.; Gordon, Nakia S.; Van Hecke, Amy Vaughan