Bondy, A., & Weiss, M. J. (Eds.). (2013). Teaching social skills to people with autism: Best practices in individualizing interventions. Woodbine House.

Reviewed by Nicole Stewart, MSEd, BCBA, LBA-NY
Association for Science in Autism Treatment

It’s no secret that autism presents with persistent deficits in social communication and social interactions. The challenge facing parents and professionals alike is how to best address each individual’s social skills. Aside from having to sift through non evidence-based treatments, one may struggle with identifying practices backed by research, getting past the jargon, and finding nuanced suggestions about how to best target this skill set. Enter Teaching Social Skills to People with Autism: Best Practices in Individualizing Interventions, edited by Andy Bondy and Mary Jane Weiss in 2013. With each chapter written by a different expert within the ABA field, this book is incredibly informative. Even better, this book is currently downloadable on the Pyramid Educational Consultants website at no charge.

Chapters

The downloadable version of this book is divided by chapter, which makes it easier to jump into the topic that is most relevant to your child so please explore the hyperlinked chapters below.

Most of the chapters have a similar framework: a definition of social skills, potential assessments to use, treatment goals, and a summary of treatment applications. The final chapter by Mary Jane Weiss serves as a conclusion to tie in overarching themes and challenges. This set-up allows the book to operate as one cohesive unit, or eight separate elements that can be utilized in their own unique ways. The reader has the flexibility to pick and choose chapters that are relevant to the setting, age, and needs of the child.

Because of the breadth of social skills and the relative newness of ABA as a treatment, this book highlights many approaches to address different components of social skills. As such, to help support different readers, I have offered recommendations for how to best utilize this book depending on your role.

The best way to utilize this book if you are a…

Parent:

For parents, this book gives a very solid foundation of what to expect and advocate for in social skills teaching. The wide world of social skills, with the nuances and fine details can often be very challenging to breakdown, and incredibly unique for each child. That presents a challenge to parents, who don’t usually go into parenthood with educational and behavioral training. You want to make sure that your child is getting the most appropriate education possible, and sometimes the initial teaching goals your child’s team prescribes seem far from your long-term goals. This book bridges that divide by providing a comprehensive overview of social skills from many different experts. One of my favorite parts was that each chapter provided a definition of social skills, and while they were all subtly different., that gave insight into the complexity of the domain and the vast needs of children with autism.

Particularly for parents of younger children, chapters 2, 4, and 6 provide descriptions of specific research-based interventions that parents can look to incorporate into their child’s program. SUNNY Starts (chapter 3) and Pivotal Response Training® (PRT®: chapter 6) require extensive parent training and participation, which are great ways for a parent to integrate themselves into their child’s social skills learning.

For parents of older children or adolescents, chapter three outlines the components of a social skills group that can appropriately address the needs of that population. Additionally, chapter 5 focuses on the importance of social skills teaching within inclusive settings, which can be applied to elementary or middle school children.

Perhaps the most important thing that can be learned from this book for a parent is to focus on research-based interventions. It is equally important to understand the projected goals of social skills intervention, and how they can be tailored to ensure the skills are both meaningful and functional for your child’s life.

BCBA/ABA Practitioner:

This section is the easiest for me: READ THE WHOLE BOOK. For BCBAs, it is rare that we have an opportunity to learn about one domain from so many different experts in our field. Despite social skills being a core deficit of autism, the amount of CEU opportunities, events and programming to build up a BCBA’s skillset does not match the need

All of the chapters reference the importance of assessment prior to treatment, which is a key takeaway message. Chapters 1, 3, and 7 all provide published assessment ideas, which BCBAs can use to ground their work in data-driven measures. Chapter Eight also provides critical reminders of treatments that may not be effective, and the importance of using behavior analytic principles within social skills instruction. Often times, it can feel easier to move to a less structured type of teaching or therapy, which can make it challenging to understand a child’s learning profile and what tactics are most effective for each child. That chapter also provides a concise summary of tactics that are effective, such as role playing or scripts.

Chapters 2, 4, and 6 refer to specific treatment protocols: SUNNY Starts, Video Modeling, and PRT® respectively. All three interventions may require additional training: PRT specifically requires certification to be able to implement independently and comprehensively. For those familiar with video modeling, using the descriptions, you may be able to implement similar protocols. Whether or not you walk away wanting to implement the exact procedures, or with concepts to enrich your own practice, these are valuable research-based tactics to be familiar with.

Other therapist (Speech/Language Pathologist, Occupational Therapist, Physical Therapist etc.):

Many other therapies incorporate social skills training into therapy sessions, even going as far as offering social skills groups or group therapy sessions. For those practitioners who have goals emphasizing social skills, I would recommend starting with chapters 1 and 8.

Chapter 1 provides a good overview of how to program for social skills, moving through assessment through goal development to implementation. It’s a broad overview that can be implemented for a child or group at any age or ability level.

Chapter 8 brings the book to a close by incorporating thematic elements in a summary. The most salient point is the important of utilizing research-based tactics, and this chapter provides a concise synopsis of tactics that have research supporting them vs. tactics that are not. It also emphasizes the importance of understanding your interventions and effects.

Teacher- Special Education and/or General Education:

Opportunities to practice social skills are threaded throughout the entire classroom experience. Often times, teaching is so heavily focused on academics that there is little support or opportunities for teachers to learn more about the social needs of children, particularly those with autism. However, most teachers probably have had a child with autism in their classroom, and that child has probably needed a unique level of support to participate fully within all components of their education, particularly those that are more social in nature.

Chapters 3 and 5 are the most geared towards an inclusive setting where children are navigating social skills in real time with peers. Chapter 3 takes the reader through setting up a social skills group including assessment and interventions. I particularly like the focus on motivation. For educators, that may spark ideas on how to make small modifications to lessons or classroom structure to promote inclusion and engagement of students with autism.

In chapter 5, the authors emphasize the importance of focusing on social skills within an inclusive setting. Recess is a critical experience for all children, and by working to facilitate social skills during that time, children with autism are more likely to be integrated into the general education setting. As a former teacher who spent many hours monitoring the playground at recess, this point struck me as critical: teachers tend to take recess as a time to let kids be kids. For children with autism though, it may be more stressful, and they may need more support, which will lead to greater gains across the board.

Summary

As part of the definition of autism, remediating and supporting appropriate social skills development is essential. Teaching Social Skills to People with Autism: Best Practices in Individualizing Interventions provides a vast overview with pointed takeaways from each chapter to help support the development of comprehensive resources in this area. This book can be used by any member of a child’s team from the parents to the professionals and will help provide research-based tactics that can be utilized across settings. Because the book provides a broad overview, it is recommended that any specific interventions, particularly those such as PRT that require rigorous training are conducted with the supervision of a qualified professional. Even so, it opens up the mind to explore many options and different definitions and responses to develop each child’s social skills repertoire.

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Citation for this article:

Stewart, N. (2020). A review of Teaching social skills to people with autism: Best practices in individualizing interventions, Science in Autism Treatment, 17(7).

 

#Adolescents #Preschoolers #Psychologists #SchoolAge #School #SocialSkills #SocialWorkers #Teachers

 

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