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Social Skills

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Handbook of Evidence-Based Practices in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Part of the book series: Evidence-Based Practices in Behavioral Health ((EBPBH))

Abstract

Social skills may be challenging for individuals with intellectual and developmental disability as a result of the social deficits and difficulties with social interaction that are central to the diagnostic definition of the disorder. These deficits may require continual treatment across the lifespan using interventions that target the social skills appropriate at each phase of development. This chapter describes social skills interventions for individuals in early childhood, elementary school, adolescence, and adulthood and offers recommendations for practice at each developmental stage. Successful interventions at all phases of development are individualized based upon the individual’s skill level and specific needs and utilize individual interests to promote engagement. The use of preferred activities or choice is seen across all stages as an important component of social skills programming. In addition, the use of behavioral strategies, environmental arrangement, and visual feedback in order to assist with the direct teaching of the skill are components of many effective treatments. Finally, many of the interventions described directly program for maintenance of skills across time and generalization of skills across people and settings, which can lead to improved long-term outcomes.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Special Education, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Laci Watkins, Michelle Kuhn & Mark F. O’Reilly

  2. Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA

    Russell Lang

  3. School of Educational Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

    Jeff Sigafoos

  4. Department of Neuroscience and Sense Organs, University of Bari, Bari, Italy

    Giulio E. Lancioni

Authors
  1. Laci Watkins
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  2. Michelle Kuhn
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  3. Mark F. O’Reilly
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  4. Russell Lang
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  5. Jeff Sigafoos
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  6. Giulio E. Lancioni
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mark F. O’Reilly .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Health Beha, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta Univ, Augusta, Georgia, USA

    Nirbhay N. Singh

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Watkins, L., Kuhn, M., O’Reilly, M.F., Lang, R., Sigafoos, J., Lancioni, G.E. (2016). Social Skills. In: Singh, N. (eds) Handbook of Evidence-Based Practices in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. Evidence-Based Practices in Behavioral Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26583-4_18

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