The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

This presentation describes an easy-to-use tool to design a functional social skills curriculum. A social inventory is a type of ecological assessment that lends itself easily to curriculum planning. Social inventories can be used to simplify the decision-making process about the selection and implementation of social skills objectives. The participants will be shown samples of social inventories and will be guided through the curriculum planning process. Case studies are included. A quality education program for children with autism pinpoints specific instructional objectives in the areas of social skills development. Social skills training is identified as a critical feature of treatment and social skill acquisition has been identified as a key measure of child progress. There are published social skills curriculum designed for children with special needs as well as curriculum specifically designed for children with autism. There is also a wide range of intervention strategies advocated for use with children to build social skills. Yet, there does not appear to be a simple roadmap for educators who are struggling to design and track a child’s generalization of social skills or ability to use skills in natural settings
The use of Social Inventories is a simple way to plan an individualized social skills curriculum for a child and track their progress. A Social Inventory is one type of ecological assessment that lends itself easily to curriculum planning. A social inventory is a checklist of specific social, communication and related cognitive skills that a child needs to function in a social setting. The intervention team used the Social Inventory to assess current social skills in natural settings, prioritize and target skills for instruction, and monitor skill acquisition.
Social Inventories can supplement published social curriculum to provide a child with a comprehensive intervention plan that addresses both skill acquisition and skill generalization.
Sample Social Inventory
Activity: Eating Lunch in the School Cafeteria
            Skill                        Skill Type    Baseline         Target    Review
1    Walk with class to cafeteria     Social           
2    Stand in line                        Social           
3    Get a lunch tray                    Motor           
4    Order lunch                          Comm           
5    Pay for lunch                        Academic           
6    Find a seat with peer group      Social         
7    Talk with peers                     Comm           
8    Eat                                    P.Care          
9    Clean up                             P.Care

Learning Objectives: