Social Skills Instruction Main Page

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Principles and Tips

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Principles and Tips

Effective school-wide systems require:

• An administrator who is an active leader and participant in quality improvement.

• A team-based decision and problem solving structure with grade and staff representation.

• High commitment from all staff.

• A behavior support action plan that is integrated into the school improvement plan.

• In-house technical expertise.

In addition, effective school-wide programs:

• Emphasize the teaching of appropriate behaviors rather than just punishing unwanted behavior

• Match the level of intervention resources to the level of behavioral challenge presented by students

• Design and integrate multiple systems that deal with the full range of discipline challenges

• Provide targeted behavior programs for those students who come to school with established patterns of violent and disruptive behavior.

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Principles for Interventions that Support the Acquisition of Positive Behaviors:

• Before determining an intervention conduct a functional analysis of behavior. A functional assessment seeks to identify the purpose, or function of a behavior, when it occurs, etc. Once these variables are identified, functionally relevant replacement behaviors can be defined. These replacement behaviors provide the student with prosocial alternatives for meeting his or her needs. Preexisting behaviors are likely to compete successfully with newly trained social skills if the preexisting behaviors lead to more powerful, immediate reinforcers than the socially skilled behavior alternatives.

• Keep in mind that undesirable behaviors can be a result of performance deficits or skill deficits.

• Teaching prosocial positive behaviors and changing aspects of the environment that produce undesirable behaviors are two ways to promote social competence.

• Positive interventions should be implemented across multiple contexts in which the child interacts.

• For interventions to have lasting results and lead to positive behavior across settings, the following principles should be remembered:

  • Multiple individuals who regularly interact with the student should be involved in training (parent, teacher, other students, etc.).

  • Train in natural contexts (e.g., the classroom, cafeteria, etc.). Incidental learning takes advantage of naturally occurring events and settings to teach social behavior.

  • Use real life examples that are meaningful to the student.

  • All adults who interact with the student should be aware of and trained in using the intervention.

  • As much as possible, identify and utilize naturally occurring reinforcers in the student's environment.

  • Train students to use multiple ways to solve a problem.

  • Post small icons, symbols, or signals throughout the school to remind students to use their newly acquired skills.

  • Prosocial skills that are taught to a student should allow the student to meet the same goals that the undesirable behavior met. For example, if a child constantly blurts out answers in order to receive teacher attention, make sure that the prosocial replacement skill will still allow the student to receive teacher attention.

  • Reinforcement should continue to be provided to the student when desired behaviors are exhibited.

  • Plan for and implement systematic steps to fade (remove) highly artificial reinforcers (stickers, food, trinkets, etc.).

  • Prompt students to use prosocial behavior in actual situations that require effective problem solving.

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• Remember to include the perspectives of parents and families in designing interventions.

  More Tips:

• Provide students with choices and alternatives.

• Provide immediate feedback to students regarding their behavior and the choices they make.

• Classroom rules should carefully state the desired behaviors that you expect from your students.

• Make sure all students know the classroom rules. Rules should be posted, periodically reviewed with the whole class, and consistently enforced.

• Transitions and routines should be predictable and consistently followed each day.

• Praise should be directly related to the desired behavior displayed by the child.

• Tasks or lessons should be adapted to match students' skill level.

• Directly teach any new skills that you would like a student to learn, such as problem-solving or social skills.

• Parents play a critical role in the development and implementation of PBS strategies. Keep the following tips in mind when communicating with parents:

  • Develop lines of communication early in the school year.

• Do not wait until problems have occurred to contact parents; daily or weekly home notes and newsletters about program implementation are easy ways to maintain communication.

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FYI:

• About 80 percent of the total student body in an elementary or middle school will not exhibit major problem behaviors. These students have basic social skills and are open to guidance and instruction on social norms. A second group of about 10 - 15 percent of the student body will be at risk for severe problem behaviors. This group requires some form of more targeted interventions. A third group of about 1 - 7 percent of the student body will display chronic patterns of violent, disruptive, or destructive behavior. Support for these students needs to be intense, individualized, and often requires wraparound efforts in which school personnel collaborate with the family, community agencies, and juvenile justice officials.

• It is important to establish a system that provides student support across four critical levels: School-wide; Classroom; Non-classroom; and Individual student.

• Different students have different needs and may require interventions that vary in their level of intensity. Schools should have several strategies for promoting positive behavior.

• Culturally relevant factors, such as ethnicity and race, influence the student's social behavior as well as the social environment in which those behaviors are performed. Therefore, social behaviors should be assessed and taught within a cultural context. Similarly, the effectiveness of social instruction will improve when these interventions acknowledge the culture of the student and his or her family.

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