Skillstreaming and Social Skills Deficits in the Schools

1. Skillstreaming and Social Skills Deficits in the Schools By Laurie Stiga

2. Social Skills Deficits in the Schools • Can the Skillstreaming program be implemented in the school setting to effectively assess and address the educational impact of reduced social skills in a reliable, organized and systematic way?

3. Is there a need to address social skills in the school setting?

4. Increased Number of Children with Reduced Social Skills • Environmental reasons – unemployment, family stress, divorce • Genetic and developmental reasons - increased rate of autism, learning disabilities

5. Inclusive Classes • Move towards inclusive settings. • Greater number of children with autism and learning disabilities are being taught in the regular classroom. • Supports in place will be helpful for teacher and student.

6. Reduced social skills may lead to… • Reduced self-esteem • Decreased sense of belonging • Reduced sense of responsibility • Increased aggressive behavior • Increased withdrawn behavior • Reduced maturity • Decreased student personal • satisfaction • Reduced student relationships • Decreased problem solving abilities • Decreased ability to deal with stress

7. Impact of reduced social skills on educational performance? • Decreased classroom participation • Reduced grades • Difficult classroom and/or school environment • Bullying

8. Why work on social skills? • Improved classroom management • Improved grades • Improved school safety • Positive school environment

9. Skillstreaming • Social skills training program being used in the schools. • Goal - teach desirable skills to improve social skills in a systematic way. • Positively reinforcing good social behaviors. • Uses teacher and peer modeling and role play. • Includes checklists that can be used for assessing social skills in an organized and measureable way.

10. Skillstreaming Assessments • The Skillstreaming program has three checklists. • They measure social behaviors in a variety of real life situations. • The Teacher Skillstreaming Checklist - rates teacher’s perception of the social skills of the student in the classroom and in other school settings. • The Parent Skillstreaming Checklist - rates parent’s perceptions of the child’s skill levels in the home and neighborhood. • The Student Skillstreaming Checklist – rates student’s perception of his/her own social skills in the home and school environment.

11. Teacher/Parent Checklists Each child is rated on 60 social skills using the following scale - • 1 if the child is almost never good at using the skill. • 2 if the child is seldom good at using the skill. • 3 if the child is sometimes good at using the skill. • 4 if the child is often good at using the skill. • 5 if the child is almost always good at using the skill.

12. Some Skills • Listening • Asking for Help • Saying Thank You • Ignoring Distractions • Joining In • Conversational Skills • Sharing • Apologizing

13. More Skills • Dealing with Feelings • Using Self-Control • Responding to Teasing • Staying out of Trouble • Dealing with Embarrassment • Reacting to Failure • Dealing with Losing

14. Wonderings About Checklists – with regard to social skills…. • Can they help measure the educational impact using parent/teacher input? • Are parent and teacher perceptions similar of different? • Can they provide us with a reliable baseline? • Can they assist in providing data-driven, individualized instruction? • Can they drive parent/teacher/therapist communication in a more objective manner?

15. Implementation of the Study • Data was collected on 5 first and second grade students at MRS. • Each student was identified as having delays in social skills. These difficulties were documented in writing by an IEP, a 504 or and I&RS plan. • The children were all in a regular education setting (regular ed or inclusive class). • Data was collected on each of the identified students utilizing 3 checklists. • Two of the checklists administered were from the Skillstreaming program – the Teacher Checklist and the Parent Checklist. • All students were also administered the Assessment of Pragmatic Skills • This checklist administered by a speech pathologist to reduce subjectivity.

16. Comparison of Initial Results from Social Skills Checklists – Parent, Teacher and Therapist Figure 1 Blue =Parent Survey, Red=Teacher Survey, Green=Therapist Checklist

17. Comments • There is room on the parent and teacher assessments to write comments. • Although the comments were unexpected, they were very informative.

18. Comments • “Doesn’t realize why others are mad or annoyed at his behavior.” • “Sometimes his perception of the rules differs from others. He then becomes upset thinking others are wrong.” • “He doesn’t like to lose. Will often accuse others of cheating during games.”

19. Interpretations • An educational impact was noted. • There appears to be reliability in the informal checklists. • Teacher, parent and therapist’s perceptions appear closely correlated. • Teachers and parents wrote comments that turned out to be very useful for grouping and individualized target selection.

20. What was done with the information? • Parent/teacher/therapist communication. • Qualified students for social skills training and/or speech therapy by establishing an educational impact using parent and teacher input. • Children were grouped for Skillstreaming and individualized targets were selected – service delivery model and frequency varied.

21. Service Delivery Models • Small group – speech therapy in therapy room – ran by speech therapist • Circle of Friends - a “social club” during lunch/recess, 50% typical and 50% socially delayed for 30 or 45 minutes – ran by a teacher, aide or CST member • Large group – presented to the entire class in a lesson format, has been utilized at MRS in an inclusive class.

22. Steps in Skillstreaming • Define the skill • Establish student skill need with a discussion • Teacher role play • Peer role play • Provide performance feedback • Review

23. Circle of Friends

24. Teacher Role Play

26. Student Role Play

27. Is It Working? • The teachers were given a copy of the teacher’s checklist again in March 2012. • This data was used to compare individual performance on the teacher’s checklist before and after implementation of Skillstreaming. • Teachers were also given a survey discussing progress and the data was compiled to see trends.

28. Comparison of September and March Skillstreaming Checklist Results Figure 2 - Blue=Teacher Results before Skillstreaming, Red=Results in March 2012

29. Teacher’s Survey Please rate improvement – • Classroom behavior • Friendship making skills • Dealing with Feelings • Dealing with Stress

30. Teacher Survey • 1 – No improvement • 2 – Little improvement • 3- Some improvement • 4 – Good improvement • 5 – Exceptional improvement

31. Figure 3 - Data from Teacher Survey

32. Interpretation • The survey results appeared to demonstrate at least some improvement. • Checklists had mixed results. • The checklist may not be sensitive enough to measure progress over a short period of time. • Some children may need more intensive intervention or intervention over a longer period.

33. Reflection ???????????????????????????????? Does that data provide some supporting evidence that the Skillstreaming assessments are accurate and useful in evaluating and treating our students’ with social skill deficits?

34. Yes! • It did demonstrate an educational impact utilizing parent/teacher input. • Parents/teachers appear to be good reporters. • Checklists can be used to create a baseline. • Useful information for individualized, data-driven instruction. • Useful for grouping of children based on their social skills needs.

35. Also Useful tool for…… • Parent/therapist communication • Teacher/therapist communication • Parent/teacher communication • Parent conferences, IEP and I&RS meetings

36. But….. • The tools don’t give as a severity level. • They are not based on normative data. • The accuracy scales are still subjective. • Parent/teacher perspectives can influence results.

37. Did the students progress with the Skillstreaming program?

38. Yes! At least some students appeared to benefit based on data collected but…….. • The checklists may not be sensitive enough measure progress over a short period of time (under a year). • Some children may need more intense intervention than what they were receiving. • Others factors may have led to the improvement.

39. External factors contributed to the improvement ?? • Home life • Adjusting to teacher/class • Classroom/school-based initiatives (ex. Be a Buddy not a Bully, Peer buddies)

40. Other Factors to Consider • Small group of children targeted. • Various service delivery models with different frequencies and durations were utilized. • May be beneficial to tease out if children improved on certain skills and not others and why.

41. Conclusions • The Skillstreaming program help make informal assessment more measurable and organized with parent/teacher input. The tools appear to be useful for communication and therapy. • It appears that at least some of the children are benefiting from the Skillstreaming program. • It is difficult to decipher out what service delivery model and frequency of services is most effective.

42. References • McGinnis, Ellen& Goldstein, Arnold, (1997), Skillstreaming in the Elementary School Child Revised Edition. • McGinnis, Ellen& Goldstein, Arnold, (1997). Skillstreaming in the Elementary School Child Revised Edition: Program Forms. • Shipley, K &McAfee, J. (1992), Assessment in Speech-Language Pathology: A Resource Manual