The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

The program being presented was recognized by the California Speech-Language Hearing Association in 2005 as Program of the Year. The speaker, a speech-language pathologist (SLP) will discuss an SLP’s role in the implementation of a social skills program. Participants will learn four steps to communicative competence, how to target salient skills from a hierarchy of social skills. Various service delivery models will be provided, as well as sample goals and objectives. This social skills component of the Asperger program utilizes a “push in” service delivery model for therapy, thereby providing language and speech (LAS) services within the self-contained classroom. This is in contrast to the more traditional “pull-out” service delivery model, where students who have LAS services on their Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) are taken to a separate therapy room for speech and language services. All of our District's self-contained Asperger classrooms are located on comprehensive junior, senior, and community college campuses. Not all students enter our District with LAS on their IEP. Many of the other students are placed in the program due to some degree of social deficit. By providing social skills within the classroom all students receive the benefit of this training. In addition, teachers and instructional assistants are present and are then able to carry out and assist students in the generalization process. There are many opportunities for “teachable moments” during the school day. The specific social skills strategies being taught are infused throughout the day. Additionally, this program has a dedicated speech pathologist who services the entire Asperger program. The benefit to the students and their families is that there is continuity of service. Lastly the program provides service to the seventh grade students and continues as they move on into our specially designed college program.

The presenter has established what she calls the four steps to communicative competence. The four steps are as follows: 1. Awareness: teaching students to become more aware of themselves in regard to their own and others non-verbal behavior. Consequently there is an increase in their ability to read the hidden curriculum in social situations. 2. Empowerment: to empower students to be able to make choices about their own social communicative behavior. This is achieved by having the student begin to understand what type of behavior is appropriate for target social situations and settings. 3. Functional independence: assist students to move toward being able to use functional independent social communicative behavior across a variety of social settings; with reduced assistance. 4. Self Advocacy: assisting students to achieve the ability to advocate for themselves across a variety of social settings. The outcome of all of these aspects of competence can be measured in a student's ability to increase his/her social communication skills. In this regard, the student is better able to formulate new relationships with unfamiliar people and is also able to demonstrate reciprocal communication.

The core deficits found in autism will be reviewed to provide an understanding of the where and how to start a treatment program. These deficits include: impairment in social interaction, theory of mind, limited/restricted interests and communication impairment. Additionally, the presenter will provide suggestions for treatment strategies for each of the core deficit areas,

The speaker will then discuss what she has established as a hierarchy of teaching social skills. She will begin this discussion by reviewing two language domains that make up the basis of teaching social skills. The first is the social communicative or pragmatic domain. The second is the social behavioral or social cognitive domain. Next, she will talk about the hierarchy of teaching social skills. The hierarchy is composed of four levels: 1. the Pre-requisite skills: theory of mind, making a positive impression and being able to take the perspective of others. 2. Entry level skills: for example, teaching students with Asperger syndrome to think in questions. 3. Beginning level skills: teaching greetings and introductions. 4. Advanced skills: dealing with sarcasm, giving/receiving compliments and dealing with criticism.

To assist in the implementation of a treatment plan, the presenter will also discuss the lesson framework that she uses as a basis for teaching the students in the program. This will allow the interventionist to implement a thorough clinical teaching model. There will be ample video clips demonstrating the various components of this teaching framework.

Lastly, the use of age-related peers as mentors has been a valuable component to this Asperger program. The social skills lessons are taught jointly to our Asperger students along with our general education peer mentors. Having neurotypical students present during instruction to provide input about what is appropriate social behavior has proven to be a very powerful addition to this service delivery model. This type of intervention has been important in helping our Asperger students to generalize the social skills being taught outside the specific instructional setting. Several video clips will be presented to help illustrate how this service delivery idea has been successfully implemented.

Some of the various teaching tools that are utilized are video taping and role playing. Students are provided ample opportunity for behavioral rehearsal of the sills being taught. Our peer mentors also assist in this process by spending time with the students in our Asperger program during brunch, lunch, and various school activities. Many of our students and their mentors have also participated in activates in the community after school an on week ends. The presenter has been affiliated with this program for five years and is able to provide many anecdotal examples of the various aspects of treatment and the students' responses to this intervention.

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