Bellini: Social SKILLS PROFILE

1. Bellini: Social SKILLS PROFILE By: Christine Zukotynski

2. What is the Bellini Social Skills Profile? • -Please see the handout . • -Any questions over the format, how to fill it out, etc.? • The district requires that teachers complete this once a year. The teacher who spends the most time with the student is to fill it out, and so is the parent. It is the teacher’s responsibility to get the information about child for the profile and the information from the parent. • -Now we have the information, what do we do?

3. So what are social skills…. • Social skills can be thought of as skills that assist a student in developing social relationships. • Bellini (2008) discusses how social skills are learned behaviors that allow a student to interact in ways that result in positive responses from others and avoid negative responses.

4. Examples of social skills • Expresses sympathy for others • Recognizes the facial expressions of others • Requests assistance from others • Understands jokes or humor • Uses eye contact during social interactions • Uses appropriate distance when interacting • Speaks with appropriate volume • Considers the viewpoints of others • Expresses feelings • Greetings (initiate and respond) • Compliments others

5. Contaminating behaviors: What are they? • When determining the needs of the students, look for “contaminating behaviors” (Elsa Abele) • Contaminating behaviors are those behaviors that “turn off” typically developing peers and adults. • Goals can be created to replace the contaminating behaviors with appropriate social behaviors. • It is important to address these contaminating behaviors as early as possible so negative patterns of interaction do not develop between the students and peers.

6. DIRECT EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION: what does that look like? • Providing explicit (direct) instruction to teach social skills is very important. • For students with ASD, we need to explicitly teach social skills just as we explicitly teach academics to all students. • Using a direct instruction model of instruction can be effective when teaching social skills. • The next slide lists and describes the steps of direct instruction lessons.

7. Example lesson • Introduction: Introduce the lesson, access background knowledge, provide a rationale. • Lesson Presentation: Teach the skill using words, visuals, and demonstration. • Guided Practice: Involve the class in demonstrating the skill through role play. • Independent Practice: Create multiple opportunities throughout the day for the students to practice the skill. When the students are meeting the expectations, provide positive reinforcement. Provide positive redirection and reminders as needed. • Closure: Review the skill the students learned and summarize the importance of using the skill.

8. Example of a simple direct explicit lesson • Notice if someone needs help. • Look at what they are doing. • Look at their body language. • Listen to their words and voice tone. • Use a friendly voice • Ask if you can help • If the person says “yes,” then help. • If the person says “no,” do not help.

9. Strategies to teach social skills

10. Power cards: How can I use them? • Power Cards are visual aids that incorporate a student’s special interest in teaching social skills • On a single sheet of paper or in booklet form, a scenario is written in the first person describing how the student’s hero solves a problem • A small card (Power Card) recaps how the student can use the same strategy to solve a similar problem

11. Example of a power card • The contestants on Survivor love to play games! In fact, playing games on the show is how they win rewards or win immunity. Sometimes the players and teams win their games, but sometimes, they lose. When they win, they give each other "high fives," smile or say, "Alright!" When they lose their game, the Survivors might not be happy. They could take a deep breath and say, "Maybe next time," or say "Good job" to their opponent. The contestants on Survivor think everyone should have fun playing games. They also want you to remember three things when playing games with other people: • Games should be fun for everyone. • If you win a game, you can: Smile, give high fives, or say, "Alright!" • If you lose a game, you can: Take a deep breath and say, "Good job" to the opponent or say, "Maybe next time." • Play games the Survivor way and your friends will have fun playing games with you!

12. Social Stories • Social stories are narratives written by parents or professionals that describe social situations in an explicit manner. • Social stories can contain words, pictures, or even video clips if you are using computerized social stories. • Social stories can be used to teach specific social skills, prepare a student for an upcoming event, or to teach a variety of positive behaviors.

13. Video Modeling • Video modeling entails a student watching a video demonstration of students performing a specific behavior and then imitating the behavior of the students in the video (Bellini & Akullian, 2007). • Video-self-modeling is a specific application of video modeling that allows the student to imitate targeted behaviors by observing himself successfully performing a behavior (Dowrick, 1999). • The student then watches the video and describes what is happening in the video. • The teacher can then refer to the video as a reminder for the student to display the selected social skill.

14. Comic strip conversations • Comic strip conversations are simple drawings that depict conversations between two or more people. • They identify what people say and do and emphasize what people may be thinking.

15. Example of comic strip conversations

16. More info.. • Students are given cartoon drawings and asked to fill in what the characters may be thinking in the pictures. • This is used to teach students to think about the perspective of others (teach theory of mind) .

17. 5 point scale • It may be helpful to use something such as a 5-point scale to help teach a specific social skill. • For example, to teach a student appropriate voice volume, you can use a rating scale to make the concept more concrete. Here is a sample scale: • No talking at all • Soft voice/whisper • Classroom voice/talking • Recess/ outside voice • Screaming/ emergency only

18. Self monitoring • Provide the student with a method of monitoring their performance of a specific social skill. • The goal is that if they are monitoring their performance they are becoming more self aware and more likely to use the specific social skill they are monitoring.

19. Any questions or concerns? • Feel free to email me at Christine.Zukotynski@eisd.net or call me at 444-8103 ex: 1017.

20. References: • Bellini, S. (2008). Building social relationships: A systematic approach to teaching social interaction skills to children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders and other social difficulties. Shawnee Mission, KS: Autism Asperger Publishing. • Bellini, S., & Akullian, J. (2007). A meta-analysis of video modeling and video self-modeling interventions for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. Exceptional Children, 73 (3), 264-287. • Buron, K. D., & Curtis, M. (2003). The incredible 5-point scale: Assisting students with autism spectrum disorders in understanding social interactions and controlling their emotional responses. Shawnee Mission, KS: Autism Asperger Publishing. • Coucouvanis, J. (2005). Super skills: A social skills group program for children with Asperger syndrome, high-functioning autism and related challenges. Shawnee Mission, KS: Autism Asperger Publishing. • Dowrick, P. (1999). A review of self-modeling and related interventions. Applied and Preventive Psychology, 8, 23-39.

21. References: • Gagnon, E. (2001). Power Cards: Using special interests to motivate children and youth with Asperger syndrome and autism. Shawnee Mission, KS: Autism Asperger Publishing. • Gray, C., & Garand, J. (1993). Social stories: Improving responses of students with autism with accurate social information. Focus on Autistic Behavior, 8, 1-10. • McClannahan, L. E., & Krantz, P. J. (1999). Activity schedules for children with autism: Teaching independent behavior. Bethesda, MD: Woodbine House. • Quill, K. A. (2000). Do-watch-listen-say: Social and communication intervention for children with autism. Baltimore, MD: Brookes. • Wellman, H. M., Baron-Cohen, S., Caswell, R. C., Gomez, J. C., Swettenham, J., Toye, E. & Lagattuta, K. (2002). Thought-bubbles to help children with autism acquire an alternative to a theory of mind. Autism, 6, 343-363.