Social Skills Training for Children and Youth
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ably salient acros s most people of a given culture or subculture. Other stimuli or surrounding circumstances are relevant but are more idiosyncratic to the situation or people involved in the interac-tions, such as the peoples* past histories of interaction with each other, th e authority one person has over another, or the contingen-cies one can exert over the other, and whether or not there is some apparent evidence that, in fact, a poor job was done. For example, if your boss tells you that you have done a poor job in a serious tone of voic e with an unsmiling face, it might be appropriate to ask what the problem was, to discuss the reason for what happened and try to discover ways to avoid that problem in the future. In contrast, if a peer who had a long history o f unfairly criticizing your activities told you the same thing, in a casual manner and there was little ap-parent evidence that a poor job was done, you might simply acknowledge the remark or even indicate that you found the remark offensive. Thus, identification of what types of responses might b e appropriate in particular social situations requires a very complex set o f discriminative skills which often need to be used without substantial warning and implemented quickly. Given identification of the stimuli which determine a general type o f response in a social situation, an adolescent needs to display the specific verbal and nonverbal behaviors of the general response. Certain of these behaviors such as making periodic eye contact while the other person is speaking, facing the other person, main-taining a relaxed posture and using a neutral or enthusiastic voice tone need to occur throughout the social interaction . Other behaviors need to occur within a specific sequence. For example, in a greeting and subsequent conversation, a salutation might be followed by a general question about the health of the other person, and then by more specific questions and responsive statements about topics o f possible common interest or about something that the other person mentioned in previous conversations. Further , the sequence of behaviors needs to be arranged to encompass the possible options or branches that might occur in the interactions. For example, the sequence of behaviors modeled in giving negative feedback to another person would vary depending on whether the other person agreed or did not agree with the feedback. Finally, there are general organizational and meshing skills which are essential for successful social interactions. These include using a vocabulary and content appropriate to the person with whom the adolescent is interacting, taking turns in the interaction,'picking
Social knowledge. Within the peer culture, norms develop con-cerning the appropriateness of behaviors for specific social situa-tions and children appear to develop skill concepts that can be used to represent this information and guide their future behavior (cf. Asher & Renshaw. 1981: Ladd & Oden, 1979: Corsaro. 1981). As conceive d here, a skill concept entails at least three aspects of social knowledge: (1) knowledge of the goals or purposes of social in-teraction. (2) knowledge of the behavioral strategies that may be used to reach socia l goals, and (3) knowledge of the contexts in which each strategy may be appropriately applied. Children may experience interpersonal difficulties because they act on the basis of skill concepts that are, relative to agemates, inac-curate or deficient in one or more areas of social knowledge. For in-stance, children may inappropriately define the purpose of a game as "to win at all costs*' rathe r than "to have fun with other kids" and. thus, act in ways that discourage peer liking and friendships (Asher & Renshaw. 1981: Renshaw & Asher. in press). Children may also lack knowledge of appropriate strategies fo r achieving social goals (e.g.. how to gain inclusion into on-going peer activity) and. therefore, avoid or withdraw from interaction or perhaps ex-periment wit h strategies that have a low probability of success. Several studies indicate that, relative to specific goals like making a new friend or helping a distressed peer, popular children are more aware o{ socially effective or appropriate strategies than less well-liked children (Asher & Renshaw. 1981: Gottman, Gonso, &. Rassmussen. 1975: Ladd & Oden. 1979). Finally, some children may be less aware of peer norms and conventions for specific social situations or have less knowledge about how changes in interactive contexts may alter the function or appropriateness of specific social behaviors. Children who lack knowledge of situationally ap-propriate behaviors may risk rejection or exclusion by acting in ways that violate peer norms and conventions. Ladd and Oden (1979 ) found that the strategies suggested by unpopular children for helping a distressed peer tended to be unique among classmates and often situationally inappropriate. Skill proficiency. Even with considerable skill knowledge some children may encounter interpersonal difficulties because they lack the ability to produce and skillfully perform the corresponding social behaviors. Although "to act" once on e "knows" about the action may seem automatic for many social behaviors, evidence from skill training investigations with children casts doubt on this
Language and Communication Skills A child's competence withlanguage is highly likely to affect the extent and quality of her/his social relationships. As significant conversational ability develops at approximately 2Vi years, social interaction increases simultaneously (Holmberg, Note 2). Children whose language and comprehension skills are limited may be hampered in their ability to communicate and interact with •their peers. Certainly, the relationship between language com-petence and competence in other areas has been documented (Ap-pleton, Clifton, & Goldberg, 1975). Social play requires at least some level of adequate communi-cation skills (Asher, Oden, & Gottman, 1977), e.g., the ability to share a theme of an activity and develop it (Garvey, 1976). Little is known yet about the relative importance of deficits in specific com-munication skills, and further, few effects have been noted as a function of training. It is probable that children with less verbal ability, e.g., younger or handicapped, are less likely to profit from skills training involving verbal instruction or complex language per-formance. And. whereas language skills may not be related to social competence among prelingual toddlers, as the child develops, lan-guage may play a more crucial role. Preliminary analyses of our data show a significant but low correlation between measures of listener vocabulary and knowledge of basic concepts in preschool children and both teacher ratings of social behavior and peer popularity. It appears, then, that language has some role to play in a child's social competence, and the practitioner would be wise to consider the socially withdrawn child's language capabilities before at-tempting remediations which otherwise may prove ineffective. Motor Skills A series of studies of elementary school children from 4th through 7th grades found consistent and significant relationships between their performance on physical measures and social status as measured by socio-metrics (Broekhoff, 1976, 1977, in press). Com-parisons of high and low status contrast groups indicated that signifi-cant differences were maintained over the three years on physical fitness and indices of muscular strength. Thus, it seems logical to
withdrawn, aggressive-antisocial, impulsive conduct, anxious-depressed, autism). Difficulty in making friends and getting along with peers was confirmed to be a very large problem for most of these children. One respondent noted that it was unclear whether difficulties with peers were a primary caus e or simply an effect of the other problems. Others stated that, along with other difficulties, their children lack social skills. Some component of the child's treatment plan, therefore, included the objectiv e of helping to enhance social skills toward more positive peer relating, while the child would be involved in therapy (individual or family) at the same time. In consultant work with children in schools, the author has ofte n found that a child who was in outside psychological therapy still needed direct help in the school setting to establish or maintain positiv e peer group relationships. Amon g the procedures utilized within the professional settings sampled, coaching and similar social skills instruction methods wer e well represented as were social problem solving (e.g.. Spivack & Shurc. 1974). The social problem solving procedure basically in-cludes instruction and practice in identifyin g a problem focus, generating alternative strategies, and considering the consequences of strategies. Both types of approaches often were combined with social or concrete reinforcers and a general supportive atmosphere t o enhance children's feelings of acceptance as the children were ac-quiring skills. A more typical approach, however, was to combine all oí the above methods to tailor a program considering the variety of difficulties in these children's social learning. This approach of diverse methods also included a focus on social skills that appeared to present particularly strong difficulties for children in these set-tings. The social skills goals included learning to assert oneself in orde r to be included, listened to and cooperated with; learning to cooperate and communicate more effectively, particularly in group situations: gaining control of impulsive lack of attention and of an-tisocial aggression: responding positively to peers: and participating more in activities. Direct instruction of these skills appeared to be more similar to the Oden and Asher or Ladd models, or Bornstein. Bellack. and Hersen (1977). especially with older children. Many programs also included direct cognitive training of the problem solving process, whereas perspective taking and consideration of consequences were originally more indirectly included in the coaching procedures. Role playing and use of cooperative activities (e.g.. Johnson. 1980) were also employed to enhance concrete