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| Developing a Comprehensive Program for Social Skills Instruction within a Public School Environment. |
| Friday, May 23, 2008 |
| 10:00 AM–1:00 PM |
| PDR 2 |
| Area: CSE; Domain: Applied Research |
| CE Instructor: James T. Ellis, Ph.D. |
| JESSICA R. EVERETT (Melmark New England), JAMES T. ELLIS (Melmark New England), LORI HODGINS BRAZELL (Newton Public Schools), JENNIFER MCGOWAN (Newton Public Schools), CHRISTINE D. ALMEIDA (Newton Public Schools) |
| Description: Students with autism spectrum disorders present with a wide variety of needs related to social functioning. An overview of social functioning in students with autism will be presented that highlights specific skill deficits (e.g., greeting others) and more global skill deficits (e.g., social referencing). A method for assessing and operationalizing social skills, developing intervention geared towards individual student needs and incorporating social skills instruction within the school day will be presented. Various strategies such as assessment of skill acquisition through formative evaluation, generalization of skills from direct instruction to the natural environment, incidental teaching of social skills, prompting within group instruction, and embedding targeted skills within age-appropriate and naturally reinforcing activities will be discussed. Participants will be presented with a model of social skills instruction that has been effectively implemented within a public school environment from preschool through elementary age programs. |
| Learning Objectives: At the completion of the workshop, participants will be able to: 1. Identify tools used to assess social skills in the school environment with children with autism. 2. Develop operational definitions of complex social skills as well as data collection strategies to measure the acquisition of these skills. 3. Describe prompting procedures used within group instruction. 4. Describe a continuum of instructional approaches that promote the generalization of social skills to the natural environment. 5. Implement at least 3 activities that facilitate the use of social skills through an incidental teaching approach. |
| Activities: Workshop activities include didactic instruction, discussion, and video clips demonstrating activities that facilitate social skills instruction. Participants will have the opportunity to practice data collection and engage in small group activities that focus on the operationalization of complex social skills and the facilitation of group instruction of social skills. |
| Audience: Target Audience: Individuals working in public school environments such as psychologists, special education teachers, or speech and language pathologists. |
| Content Area: Practice |
| Instruction Level: Intermediate |