Why Teach Social Skills?

In a society where few live in isolation, the ability to interact and communicate effectively with others is critical to personal success and quality of life. The majority of us learn social skills with little difficulty and to a significant degree incidentally. We pick up on cues, learn the ropes, go with the flow and, most of the time, learn from our mistakes. So how difficult can it be if much of it comes naturally? The answer is, for many individuals with ASD most of it does not come naturally. It has to be taught.

Think about it ... each social interaction requires that a person understand and analyze a situation, draw upon a repertoire of social skills, make a choice and act. Often a situation requires that we perform several of these skills simultaneously. The social skills we use are often complex and abstract. You must know and understand social norms, read body language and facial expressions, identify emotions, process and integrate multiple stimuli, distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information, and understand the cause-and-effect relationship between our own behavior and that of another person. We must then transfer our learning to different situations where one or more details have changed.

Social competence is indeed complex and the skills required to interact in a socially appropriate manner are numerous. However, these skills can be taught. What strategies are considered effective in teaching social skills? How do you determine if a strategy will be effective with individuals with ASD?

There is little research on teaching social skills to children and youth with ASD. However, several strategies have been identified as successful in teaching and interpreting social skills. One of these is SOCCSS. The others include: (a) direct instruction, (b) cartooning, (c) social autopsies, (d) sensory awareness, (e) acting lessons, and (f) social stories (Gray, 1993; Bieber, 1994; Myles & Adreon, 2001; Williams & Shellenberger, year).

To determine if a strategy is appropriate requires, we must look at each individual's needs and skill level and the requirements of the strategy to be taught.