Social Skills Curricula
Several commercial social skills curricula use a direct-instruction approach and may be helpful in guiding social skills instruction (see Table 4.4 in Chapter 4 for a listing of social skills curricula). The ACCEPTS (A Curriculum for Children’s Effective Peer and Teacher Skills) and ACCESS (Adolescent Curriculum for Communication and Effective Social Skills) curricula are highly structured, even providing a script for teachers to follow. These are easy to use, and teachers who have never taught social skills appreciate the guidance that the script offers. The Skillstreaming series [Skillstreaming in Early Childhood, Skillstreaming the Elementary School Child, and Skillstreaming the Adolescent (all McGinnis, 2011)] are less structured, presenting each lesson in a brief outline form. Helpful features include the fact that each skill is task analyzed, and several self-monitoring forms are included for use with each skill. The Social Skills Improvement System (SSIS) Intervention Guide is coordinated with the Social Skills Improvement System (SSIS) Rating Scales (Gresham & Elliott, 2008; see Table 7.3 ).
However, commercial curricula should be used with three caveats in mind. First, most commercial social skills curricula have been field tested with students with autism. Second, the skills included in each curriculum may not match the skills needed by your students, as indicated by your ecological assessment data. Finally, the instructional procedures recommended may need to be slightly modified, depending on your students’ language levels.