Susan: Hello, my name is Susan Danner.
I'm a Kansas MTSS State Trainer
with the Kansas Technical Assistant System Network's
Multi-Tier System of Supports.
Today, we are going to learn about teaching social skills
to students who are conversational social communicators.
You will have the opportunity
to participate throughout this presentation
and will be able to ask questions at the end.
Staff from TASN in Kansas,
the Colorado Department of Education,
and the Nebraska Department of Education
collaborated to bring you this presentation.
Cara Woundy, Jamie Lewis, Peggy Lawrence, and myself
are excited to share this information
regarding social skills with you today.
After viewing and participating in this presentation,
you should be able to do the following.
Determine the needs of your students by utilizing
the appropriate social skills assessment tools.
Describe strengths and needs of students
with conversational social communication challenges.
Explain the impact that social skills have on student access
to relationships, education, different environments,
and quality of life.
Design individualized social skills instruction
across all environments.
Today, we will talk about the why, who,
what, how, and where to teach social skills
to students who are at the conversational level.
We would like for you to take the following message
away from our time together today.
The social skills curriculum should be a critical part
of each and every day for students with ASD.
The curriculum and activities have to be planned
and implemented with as much consideration,
if not more than math, literacy, and every other area.
Why teach social skills?
Social skills have a direct correlation
to individuals being able to obtain and keep a job,
to finish high school, and pursue higher education.
Research says that individuals with soft skills,
such as good social skills, sociability,
good work habits, and conscientiousness,
as well as those who participate
in extracurricular activities,
are more likely to make more money, be employed,
and attain high levels of education
than those with good grades
and high standardized test scores.
Here are some common social skills deficits.
As we go through these, try to think of a student
with whom you work or have worked
who might have one or more of these difficulties.
Difficulty with nonverbal behaviors,
such as eye-to-eye gaze,
making appropriate facial expressions
and reading facial expressions accurately,
body posture, and gestures.
Developing and maintaining peer relationships
are an area of difficulty.
A lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment,
their interests, and achievements with others.
A lack of social and emotional reciprocity,
meaning that there is no give and take
when faced with social and emotional situations with peers.
Here are some social characteristics of students with ASD.
Nonverbal communication,
you have probably heard that around 93%
of communication is nonverbal.
Think about how difficult it would be
to read and understand a story
if you could only see or understand 7% of it.
Social initiation,
this is when a student initiates play
or a conversation with a peer or adult.
Social reciprocity,
the ability to give and take in a social situation.
Social cognition,
the ability to understand the social situation.
This is our first opportunity for you to participate.
Raise your hand if this sounds like a student
with whom you have worked.
Think about the specific areas of difficulty
that the student has had
and how that impacts their daily life.
Moving on to our next WH question,
who should receive social skills instruction?
Here are some characteristics of people who are
at the conversational level for social communication.
As we go through this list, think about a student
with whom you have worked that meets this criteria,
generally well-developed social radar,
have metacognition,
understand perspectives,
lack perception of subtleties,
less attune to nonverbal,
pervasive anxiety,
blenders and faders with anxiety,
function under the radar,
avoid social situations outside home.
Here we have listed some strengths and challenges
that an early conversation social communicator may have.
Some strengths are average to above average verbal skills,
average to above average IQ,
may be very bright in areas of special interest
and global knowledge,
language, and solid academic skills.
Some challenges are executive functioning,
spontaneous interactions,
may monopolize or withdraw if not interested,
being bullied,
may isolate with books or avoid group work,
adults may see as charming
and struggle to recognize difficulties,
sensory problems,
and may have a high risk of OCD, depression, or anxiety.
Which one of the following are characteristics of a student
who is at the conversational level of social communication?
A, Average to above average IQ,
B, Sensory problems,
C, Understands the perspective of others,
D, Bullied,
or E, All of the above.
The answer is all of the above.
Students at the conversational social communication level
often have sensory problems and can be easily bullied.
They also have the ability to see things
from other people's perspective,
and have an average or above average IQ.
What should we assess and teach?
These are some examples of assessments
that you can use to identify areas of strength and need.
Notice that many of them are free,
such as the TRIAD Social Skills Assessment
and the Autism Social Skills Profile.
When we are talking about students who have skills
at the conversational social communication level,
they typically have these skills.
Well-developed language skills,
uses vocabulary that is age appropriate,
might interpret language literally,
less attune to nonverbal communication,
self-regulation is a struggle,
and may not accurately interpret others' expressions.
We need to make sure that we are teaching the skills
that are important for our students to have
in order to be successful in school, postgraduate programs,
and in the community.
These are some of the critical skills
that we need to be sure and teach.
Remember that we don't just teach these skills,
we give opportunities to practice in multiple settings.
The critical skills that we have identified are as follows,
perspective taking,
eye contact,
reciprocal interactions,
communicating their wants and needs,
verbal and nonverbal communication,
Gestalt thinking or the big picture,
and the ability to think flexibly.
True or false,
understanding verbal and nonverbal communication
is a critical social skill that students need
to have in their repertoire.
The answer is true.
It is important for our students to learn how
to understand both verbal and nonverbal communication.
How can we teach social skills?
There are three general types of intervention ideas
that we have listed here.
The first intervention idea is called direct instruction.
This means that we directly teach the skills
that we want the student or students to learn.
The second one is generalization of skills.
We teach the skills that we want the students to demonstrate
and then help them use these newly acquired skills
in different environments.
The third idea is developing peer awareness.
Not only do we want students to have the skills
to use them in different settings,
students need to be aware of how their behavior
and actions impact their peers and be able
to understand their peers' behavior and communication.
We are going to talk more about these
and more specific interventions
as we move forward in this presentation.
Scott Bellini believes that there is no one method
to teach social skills that works
for all students all the time.
Evidence shows that many approaches can be effective.
There are many interventions, books, articles,
and strategies out there.
It is important to choose what works for your student needs.
Another important thing to remember is
that no matter what curricula you choose,
our students need to be taught these skills directly.
Scott Bellini uses video modeling,
and Jed Baker uses do and don't pictures.
Michelle Garcia Winner takes an area
of teaching social skills beyond basics
and teaches the thinking behind social interactions.
There are four areas of interventions
that we have identified,
regulation strategies, relationships,
Social Narratives, and social skills groups.
We have listed some materials that we have found helpful
when teaching social skills to our students.
The three strategies that we have found useful
for teaching self-regulation are
The Incredible 5‑Point Scale,
Alert Program, and Zones of Regulation.
Let's learn more about these strategies.
The Incredible 5‑Point Scale helps students identify
how they are feeling and problem solve
to find ways to deal with how they are feeling.
The program helps students identify
individualized strategies that they can use.
You can see from this example
that this student individualized their scale
to match how they might be feeling.
When this student is feeling like they are a four,
for example, they can look at their visual here
and see that the task is difficult for them
and they are going to need help.
You could also add pictures to this
to help prompt the student as to what action they can take.
For example, you might add a picture
of a student with their hand raised next to the four.
This reminds the student that they can raise their hand
to ask for help if the task is difficult for them.
The Alert Program helps students become more aware
of their self-regulation.
An engine analogy is used.
And a visual is presented with the question,
how is your engine running?
The options are too low, just right, or too high.
You can also use colors or animals.
You could also use a student's special interest,
such as Winnie the Pooh.
Tigger might stand for too high,
Eeyore might stand for too low,
and Pooh for just right.
Zones of Regulation help teach self-regulation
and emotional control.
It categorizes how the student might feel into four zones,
blue, green, yellow, and red.
The strategy helps students to become more aware
and able to control their emotions,
manage their sensory needs,
and improve their ability to problem solve.
Social Thinking is a strategy that we have found useful
for teaching about relationships.
Superflex uses characters
to help students learn about their behavior
and strategies to help them learn how
to regulate themselves.
Students are typically very engaged in this program.
Social Narratives can be helpful for students as well.
You can use Social Stories, Power Cards,
Social Behavior Mapping, Social Autopsies, or Story Kit.
All of these are strategies to use
when you want to teach the behavior that is appropriate.
Social groups are a great way to teach
and practice social skills.
This is a format to use
when creating your lesson plans for the group.
Have a warm-up activity.
You might have each student check in
on a general five-point scale.
This is a good way for you
to take the temperature of the group,
so you know how to interact with the students
and better meet their needs that day.
You also have the opportunity
to learn more about your students when you do this.
Next, introduce your topic for the day, and teach the skill.
Then, model the behavior or skill,
and allow students an opportunity to practice.
Be sure to coach them, provide feedback,
and help them problem solve if necessary.
A great way to end the group is
with free time or snack time.
I have found that ending a social skills group
with a short, interactive game to be wonderful.
Students are essentially forced to use their social skills
but in a fun way.
It also gives you the opportunity
to have those teachable moments that we all love.
Here are some reasons why
social skills programs are ineffective,
insufficient dosage,
contrived and de-contextualized settings,
failure to match skill deficit
with the type of intervention strategy,
failure to assess social skills
prior to implementing the intervention,
use of ambiguous intervention objectives,
lack of systematic programming,
and poorly implemented interventions.
We can avoid all these
by thoroughly assessing our students' needs,
planning for instruction,
and implementing interventions with fidelity.
When teaching a social skills group,
you should do the following.
A, Assess student needs,
B, Create daily lesson plans,
C, Provide direct instruction,
D, Allow time for students
to practice their newly learned skills,
or E, All of the above.
If you answered all of the above, you're correct.
Just like when we are teaching a math skill,
we always assess student needs, create lesson plans,
teach the skill directly to the students,
and give them time to practice their skills.
Students need all of this to learn social skills, too.
Where do we teach social skills?
Within these four areas of intervention,
we have identified strategies that can be used
to help teach and generalize skills.
Within regulation strategies,
one can use visual supports with the student,
such as The Incredible 5‑Point Scale.
For relationships, training staff and students is key.
When using Social Narratives as an intervention,
you might use a Power Card
to prime the student before they transition
to an undesired or difficult activity.
And when using social skills groups as an intervention,
you could set up a lunch group
to give students an opportunity to practice skills
that they have learned with their peers.
Developing peer awareness is a key component
in social skills.
Creating a peer network through the use
of Circle of Friends or Intricate Mind videos
can be great for our students.
Circle of Friends is a program that focuses
on including students with disabilities.
Intricate Mind videos are aimed
at helping peers understand other peers' differences.
Developing peer-mediated interventions,
such as lunch groups, peer buddies, or structured recess,
can also be beneficial,
especially when we want our students
to generalize their skills.
When using a strategy like structured recess, for example,
you may have a good opportunity to do some video modeling.
This is a video of a girl named Kaede.
She has autism, and this is a good example
of why we need to teach social skills
and help students generalize the skills that they learn.
As you watch this clip,
think about what you might focus on
when teaching Kaede social skills.
(dramatic music)
-: She is a first-grader, (faint chattering)
Kaede Sakai,
and she is smart.
She's, most of the time, cooperative in class,
gets her work done.
Woman: Who can tell me so far what the story was about?
-: Hey, I had that one! (children chattering)
-: The problem -: Hey, don't take
-: is recess. -: all of everything!
All the jump ropes are gone now.
-: For Kaede, -: Can I borrow the ball?
Reporter: an exercise in frustration.
Kaede: Can I borrow the ball?
Reporter: Try as she might,
she just can't seem to click with the other kids.
Kaede: Annaka, can I borrow your ball?
-: You can't just take it for a second.
Reporter: It is heartbreaking to see,
(Kaede cries)
and heartbreaking for her mom, Kristi,
to know this is what happens.
-: She's been very sad lately because a lot of the kids,
they have their own, kind of, set play as a group.
Kaede: You're not supposed to have that!
Reporter: And it's not that these kids are being mean,
in a way, they're being quite patient because
something about how Kaede approaches play,
it's easy to be turned off.
-: She's inflexible.
She has difficulty engaging properly with other peers.
She needs them to do things her way,
(children chattering)
period.
Kaede: You're not supposed to have that!
-: Oh, well!
-: And kids aren't able to that.
Reporter: And while this perhaps looks like nothing more
than a little girl having a bad day and
she'll get over it, it actually takes someone
who has seen a lot children with autism
to recognize that what's happening with Kaede is autism.
Susan: Does the situation in the video clip remind you
of a student with whom you have worked?
Raise your hand if you can identify one strategy
from this webinar that you might use with Kaede.
Thank you for joining us today.
Feel free to email me with any questions that you may have.