The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

In order for students with social deficits to be successful in school, with relationships and with career choices, it is vital to address these problems in an educational setting. Many of the unwritten social rules people tend to know instinctively can be taught by using acting techniques and technology. These students can learn about non-verbal communication, how to utilize their body language and movement, and how to control their facial expressions and tone of voice. As a result, students’ self esteem, self-awareness and imagination will strengthen. Educators can create a dynamic curriculum by using a three-element social skill program.

Social skill instruction is the first essential element that should be included in an intervention. Strategies are separated into sequential skills upon which students can build more complex ones. These strategies help improve a student’s communication, problem-solving, decision-making, self-management and peer-relationship skills. The goal to effective social skill instruction is that it will provide positive behavior support for the school, home and community.

Through drama techniques, students can practice social skills in a controlled environment, which is considered the second element to a successful social skill intervention program. After the social rules are learned for a particular situation, students should role-play and act out the sequential skills in the correct order. Students may recite poetry to develop characters that are happy, sad, jealous and exhibiting other emotions. The use of poetry can encourage self-disclosure and empathy. They also learn about different emotions through activities that utilize painting and listening to different forms of music. Many drama techniques assist students to improve their spontaneous language and their social reciprocity. Students will learn how to socially improvise; create speeches and stories; develop their own news segments, cooking shows and interviews; and read skits. 

Technology is the third element to enhance learning new behaviors and social skills. Developing an individualized video-modeling clip can increase the chances that the learned social skill behavior will generalize to different environments. Educators can design a small studio set-up. Chroma-key fabric, a video camera, studio lights, a video mixer and editing software with a chroma-key feature can be purchased. Technology can help students travel anywhere their imaginations want to take them. They can be in a school, castle, forest or even a video game. Technology can also help educators develop an individual social skill video clip of an appropriate behavior. They can also create a story from the students’ point of view. By using commercial video modeling DVDs and interactive software, students will learn appropriate strategies to use in different social situations. To enhance student viewing, educators can also utilize video clips from popular movies. While viewing a video clip, educators can “freeze” the footage, so that students can learn about different facial expressions and feelings in certain situations. They can learn how to analyze a character’s personality and determine if he/she followed the “social rules.” 

Using social skill instruction, drama techniques and technology to create a social skill program, educators will be delighted with the improvement their students make in their social skills. When students are filmed practicing social skills, data of students’ progress is also being recorded. The three-element social skill program is a visual and imaginative way to teach social skills. Students will develop strategies to assist them in any difficult social situation.