Teach Social Skills Home Community 08

Teaching Socials Skills
in the Home and Community

Presented by Karen Umstead BCABA
Beautiful Minds of Princeton
beautifulminds@comcast.net

© BMOP 2008 www.beautifulmindsofprinceton.com 1

Course Objectives
You will develop an understanding of:
 the 5 W’s (who, what, when, where, why) and
how to teach social skills
 Social skills assessment/evaluation
 Social skills instructional strategies


Housekeeping Details
Raise your hand if you have a question and ask away though we
may need to save some for the end due to time constraints.

Please place your cell phones on vibrate, thanks 

Quick survey: parents, educators, service providers?

Autism = Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)


What do you already know?

What do you want to know?


I need some help

I need volunteers for our next activity.

If you are not a volunteer, you need to take out
something to write on (scrap paper) and something
to write with

Break into groups of 3 or 4. Every group should have
one of my special volunteers


Communication Activity
You must communicate with your group.

You cannot speak or write (including
numbers and letters with fingers).

You’ll have 5-10 minutes. I’ll give you a
warning when there is only 2 minutes left.


Bringing it together
Volunteer: Did you get your point across?
How did you feel?

Group: Could you understand your team
member? How did you feel?


Bottle/Milk

Wants someone
Baby Cries Wet Diaper
to talk to them

Wants to be held
or Rocked


Problem Behaviors
• Primary Functions of behavior:
• Attention, Escape, Sensory, Tangible
• Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence
• Used to collect info on problem behavior
• Think about what happens before and after behavior

• Functional Behavior Assessment:
• Interviews
• Data collection
• Analysis
• Reinforcement & Social Skills Inventories


Typical Responses
Infrequent Errors
Response to Academic Problems Response to Behavior Problems
• Assume student is trying to make • Assume student is not trying to
the correct response make the correct response
• Assume error was accidental • Assume error was deliberate
• Provide assistance (model-lead- • Provide negative consequences
test) • Practice not required
• Provide practice • Assume student will make the
• Assume student has learned the right choice and behave in the
skill and will perform correctly in future
the future

Adapted from PATTAN workshop “Behavior-Instruction Connection”

© BMOP 2006 www.beautifulmindsofprinceton.com

Typical Responses
Frequent Errors
Response to Academic Problems Response to Behavior Problems
• Assume student has learned the • Assume student refuses to
wrong way cooperate
• Assume student has been taught • Assume student knows what is
(inadvertently) the wrong way right and has been told often
• Diagnose the problem enough
• Adjust presentation, use effective • Provide more negative
instructional strategies, provide consequences (withdrawal,
feedback, practice & review maintaining removal)
• Assume student has learned the • Assume student has learned
skill his/her lesson

Adapted from PATTAN workshop “Behavior-Instruction Connection”


Common Social Difficulties with ASD
• Nonverbal communication
• face, body, posture, tov, (giving & receiving)
• Social initiation
• Joining conversation or activity, asking for help,
greeting, pacing and timing (like a jump rope)
• Social reciprocity and terminating interactions
• Taking turns, ending conversations, responds to
questions or greetings from others, being polite


Common Social Difficulties with ASD
• Social Cognition
• Compromising, understand multiple POV, correctly
analyzes social situation, stays on topic
• Perspective Taking & Self Awareness
• Expressing sympathy, appropriate distance, tov,
volume, provides compliments to others
• Social Anxiety and Avoidance
• Unstructured activites, +/- peer interactions,
interactive play vs. parallel play


Assessment
• Identify strengths and deficits
• Acquisition/skill, performance, fluency
• Try to incorporate multiple perspectives
(teacher, SLP, parent, student)
• Develop long-term/short-term goals
• MUST PLAN FOR GENERALIZATION!
• May use formal rating scale or assessment
• SSRS, Skillstreaming, Second Step, BASC


Considerations
• Who should teach (EVERYONE )
• Parents, relatives, peers, siblings, teachers
• Where to teach
• Natural environment is best
• Place where the skill should be displayed
• Teach across settings, people, places, etc
• Goodness of fit: Do you have….
• Time, resources, energy,..to do it like you plan


Considerations
• When to teach
• Consider age/developmental norms
(Yardsticks)
• Look at typically developing peers
• Identify pre-requisite skills
• Identify important to functioning now and in
the future
• Consider maintenance
• (think back to high school math class)


Game: “Going on a picnic”
• I’m going on a picnic and I’m going to
bring _______
• What are you going to bring?

Yes you can come! Nope, you can’t come.


Social Skills
• Direct Skill Instruction
• Activity schedules
• Social scripts:
• Social Stories
• Powercard Strategy
• Multimedia
• Video-modeling


Direct Social Skills Instruction
Key components of effective social skills instruction:
Define the skill
Model the skill (example & non-example)
Role-play
Feedback
Another way to view it: 3-D approach
Discuss Demonstrate and Do (from Behavior Therapy
Associates)


Direct Instruction
Think of a specific skill (e.g. greeting, dealing
with anger, etc)
Break down the skill into steps (task analysis)
Teach each of the skills
Generalize across settings


Following Directions
1. Listen carefully to the instructions
2. Ask questions about anything you
don’t understand
3. Repeat the instructions to yourself
(or the person)
4. Follow instructions

From Skillstreaming task analysis of Following Directions pg. 95


How to greet someone

2) Walk towards person
3) Stop one arm’s length away
4) Look at the person’s face
5) Say “Hi”


Modeling & Role-Play
Modeling
• Show the correct way and the incorrect way
• Modeler should “talk aloud” about the steps they
are taking
Role-play
• Give students the opportunity to practice the skill
• Be as realistic as possible in creating situations


Feedback
• Peers and staff should give feedback on what the role-play
participants did well and areas for improvement
• Behavior specific praise
• (That was a great job remembering to raise your hand;
• I like the way you came and asked me for help)
• Reinforcement MUST be personally meaningful to the
individual


Shaping
Encourage approximations that are better
than the one before it.
Student wants a ball:
Uhhh Bbbbb Baaaa Bawwl Ball

You want the student to sit quietly during reading:
Student sits 30 sec w/o talking, then 60 sec, then 2
min, 3 min, until all of reading time


Prompting
Least to Most Prompt Hierarchy
• Written
• Gestural
• Verbal (only use when a verbal response is
required)
• Faded Physical
• Full Physical


Reinforcement
Anything that increases the future probability of the
behavior occurring is considered reinforcement

Are the following things reinforcing?

 M&M’s  Popcorn  Sesame Street

 Snickers  Flowers  Math


Game: “Shape that Behavior”
Veronica Volunteer loves it when people clap
for her. We can shape her behavior by
clapping as she gets closer to doing the
desired behavior.

I need a volunteer to leave the room.


Reinforcement
Two common types of reinforcements
• Continuous-Given after each occurrence of
target behavior
• Intermittent-sometimes reinforcers are
given after occurrence of target behavior,
sometimes nothing is given after the
occurrence of a behavior


Pairing
Build off of what you already have
that is reinforcing and start making
new things/people/places

Consider how to make other
people valuable to the student


Coaching & Cueing
• Preemptively prompt as much as possible
• In a situation, try and remind the student what options
they have available
• Incidental Teaching
• Social Autopsy- take what happened and de-construct
• Helping students reword rules in their own words
• Creating/giving frequent opportunities for practice
• Go to the store to practice rather than shop


Post-it Magic!
• Carry post-it’s with you to use on-the-spot
• Take the task, break it down and use the
post it notes for each step (either written or
picture cues)
• Use for choice-making if needed
• Provide as a visual prompt (e.g. take 3 deep
breaths)


Task Analysis
Breaking down a task into smaller components

What are the steps required to complete a task?
Be specific.

The idea here is that another person could:
 Pick up your task analysis
 Perform it as written
 Successfully complete it.


Task Analysis
Example: Unpacking: Task completion
2. Walk in door What step(s) might be missing:
3. Go to cubby
4. Take off backpack • Take out pencil
5. Open backpack • Answer problem one
6. Take out snack • Answer next problem
7. Put snack in desk • Repeat 3rd step until finished
8. Hang up backpack & • Have teacher check work
coat (if wearing one) • Turn in
9. Sit down at desk


Picture/Activity Schedules
A.J. Morning To Do List Done

Unpack my backpack

Gather Materials

Read Morning Message

Sit at my seat and begin my work


Activity Schedule
• Set of pictures or words that cue someone
to engage in a sequence of activities.
• Can take many forms, be detailed or more
general.
• Generally 3 ring binder with pictures or
words on each page that cue children to
perform tasks, engage in activities, and
enjoy rewards. It can


Pre-Requisite Skills
• Picture vs. Background
• Matching Skills
• Picture-Object Correspondence
• Accepting Manual Guidance
• Try to use activities already mastered


Starting Up
1. Mix mastered (more) with a few new activities
2. Initial schedule should be brief (no more than 5 or 6 activities)
3. Select activities with clear endings
4. End schedule with reinforcement (preferred snack or activity)
5. Take pictures of ONLY the target materials or activity
6. Have the same background for all the plastic binder pages
7. Place picture in plastic sleeve or laminate and then Velcro to binder page
8. Identify a place for the materials needed to be stored in the appropriate setting
(e.g. lined up on a shelf in order on the schedule)
9. Use most-to-least prompts (full manual guidance, graduated guidance, spatial
fading, shadowing, decreasing physical proximity).


What are Social Stories?

• Carol Gray defined it as “a short story that
describes a situation, concept, or social skill
using a format that is meaningful for people
with autism spectrum disorders” (13-1)
• A form of social scripting


Sentence Types
• Descriptive
• Perspective
• Directive
• Affirmative
• Partial sentences


Descriptive
• Truthful, opinion-and-assumption free
statement of fact
• Where it occurs
• Who is involved
• What they are doing

Examples
• Sometimes my mom works late
• My name is ________

Descriptive sentences will probably be the
sentences you’ll use the most.


Perspective
• Statements that refer to/describe a person’s
internal state, their knowledge/thoughts, feelings,
beliefs, opinions, motivation, or physical
condition/health.
• Usually refer to other people
• My teacher knows about reading (knowledge/thoughts)
• Some children believe in Santa Claus (belief)
• Many children like chocolate (opinion)


Directive
• Suggested response or choice of response to a situation or concept.
• Directive sentences often begin with “I can try,” “I will work on”
and “One thing I can do is
• Try not to use only I will or I can (I have used it with no problems):
• I will try and listen to my teacher
• I may ask my teacher or my aide to help me write my work
• Directive sentences often begin with “I can try,” “I will work on”
and “One thing I can do is…”
• Allow for flexibility so that there is room for error.
• You need to be careful here because if you say “I will..” State in
positive way (we are teaching what TO do, not what kids should
NOT do)


Affirmative
• Enhance the meaning of the surrounding statement
• Often express a commonly shared value or opinion
within a given culture
• To stress an important point, refer to rule or law, or
reassure the person the story is written for.
• Usually follows a descriptive, perspective, or
directive sentence.
• This is a good idea
• This is a safe thing to do
• This is okay


Partial sentences
• Encourage the reader to fill in the blank or
make a choice.
• Not used in all stories.
• Today I feel ________
• When I can feel angry, I can __________


How to introduce & use
• Review before a situation where the skill
would be needed
• At the beginning of the day
• After an incident has occurred where skill
use is beneficial
• On a periodic basis to refresh


Ratios & Sample
Basic Social Story Ratio
0-1 directive sentences
2-5 descriptive, perspective and/or affirmative

Kindergarten friends come to school at Memorial I like to see my friends and
my teachers. My teachers are Mrs. B and Mrs. C. They like to see me!

I line up to go to class. A teacher walks with my friends and me. Sometimes I
am the line leader. I like to be first. Mostly I am in the middle of the line. I
can say, “It’s OK if I’m not first.” Some days I am last in line. I can say, “I
have an important job! I’m the caboose.”

I go home on the bus. I might be first, second, or third in line. I might be last.
I can say, “It’s OK if I’m not first.” The bus drivers take me home when it’s
my turn. My family is happy to see me.

My Mom says, “Did you have a good day?” I say, “Yes, I did!”

What happens at bus dismissal
I ride the bus to school and in the afternoon I take the
bus home. When it is time to leave school, I usually
walk to Bus 3 with Mrs. Wesley. Most days, Joseph
walks to his bus to go home. Sometimes, I may want to
go with Joseph on his bus. I may feel sad that he rides
home on a different bus. It is okay to be sad. I can tell
myself: “It’s okay. I’ll probably see Joseph tomorrow.”
My friends on my bus are usually happy to see me get
on. My bus driver and family will be happy too.


What happens on the bus

I ride the bus to school and
in the afternoon I take the bus home.

When it is time to leave school,
I usually walk to Bus 3 with Mrs. Wesley.


Most days, Joseph walks to his bus to go home.


Sometimes, I may want to go with Joseph on his bus.
I may feel sad that he rides home on a different bus.


It’s okay. I’ll probably
see Joseph tomorrow.

It is okay to be sad. I can tell myself: “It’s okay. I’ll
probably see Joseph tomorrow.”

My friends on my bus are usually happy to see me get on.
My bus driver and family will be happy too.


Power Card Strategy
• Developed by Gagnon (2001)
• Based on visual support literature and
priming
• Utilizes student’s special interests
Two parts:
• Personalized script (read prior to event)
• Power Card


The Script
• Brief scenario about special interest/hero and the
behavior/situation in need of work
• Visual cues (photos, drawings, etc) related to
special interest
• Brief scenario where hero/model attempts to solve
behavior problem child struggles with
• 3-5 step strategy outlining the way to solve the
problem and how it was successful
• Note of encouragement from the hero (Ex:
Smokey the Bear says only you can prevent forest
fires)

Power Card
• Small card (size of trading card, bookmark,
or business card)
• Synthesizes script, in particular the steps
necessary to solve the problem
• Reference to special interest


Garfield likes to do his work

Garfield likes to do his work.
He knows that doing work can help him get more lasagna.

Great asking!
Sure!
Can I take a break?

Sometimes he may be working and want
to stop. He can ask Jon for a break.

Garfield
needs a
break 

• Jon knows that sometimes Garfield needs a
break. Garfield will take a short break.

Time to go
back to work


• When Garfield is finished his short break, he
goes back and finishes what he was working on.

• He feels good that he finished and
looks forward toward earning his penny.


• When Garfield gets a lot of pennies, he
can buy lasagna.

Garfield wants everyone to be able to finish
their work, especially his friend Bruce.


Can I take a break?
To work like Garfield remember:

3. Doing your work helps you earn
things you like

5. When you are tired or
frustrated, you can ask for a
short break

7. When your break is finished, go
back and finish your work.


Ask for a break like Garfield does and you
can finish your work and earn your
pennies!


Implementation
• Start by introducing both the script & the
Power Card together
• After a pre-set amount of time, allow
student to choose between reading the script
or just reviewing the Power Card
• Eventually fade to use of Power Card only


Expansion
• Student can carry around key ring with
various cards on it to assist in social
situations
• Student can place inside wallet for
reminders
• Power Card can be placed on corner of
desk/inside desk to provide a visual
reminder of the skill that needs to be
demonstrated

Resources
Select articles from the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis:
seab.envmed.rochester.edu/jaba/articles_selected/index.html

Autism Society of America: www.autism-society.org

COSAC: a NJ center on Autism www.njcosac.org

Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies: www.behavior.org


Teach Social Skills Home Community 08

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