S O S Social Skills In Our Schools

Forming healthy, solid relationships with their typical peers is a major challenge for most children with autism spectrum disorders. This comprehensive social skills curriculum has the dual purpose of helping educators develop appropriate social skills in children with pervasive developmental disorders while also fostering understanding and tolerance among typical peers and school staff. The curriculum includes built-in booster lessons, so the child receives multiple presentations of the material, thus reinforcing the lesson for better understanding and generalization.

The SOS: Social skills in Our Schools Transition Program is a four-year comprehensive curriculum, that prepares adolescents and young adults with autism spectrum disorder and other social interaction challenges (e.g., communication disorders, attention deficit disorder, social anxiety) for a productive adult life. The focus of the program is developing effective social behavior and communication at work and play (with family, friends, and in romantic relationships), on self-regulation/coping, planning and organization, self-advocacy, insight, and independent living skills. The goal to remove obstacles to success is achieved through didactic instruction and cognitive behavioral therapeutic activities in a skills group, as well as through peer mentoring and parent support. Planned practice and real-life experiences link individual skills together and promote generalization. Written and tested in collaboration with New York City Public School staff, this program is practical and innovative. It is effectively delivered in high schools and colleges, in clinics and other therapeutic settings as well.

In every category of exceptional learners, there are some learners who struggle with social skills. This guide provides PreK – 5th grade teachers with evidence-based, practical, teacher-friendly, strategies for helping children with special needs build social skills. Written by experienced classroom teachers, this guide recommends interventions for strengthening important social skills, including communication, conflict resolution, and team building skills. It includes Tier 1 interventions for educators to use in the context of ongoing academic instruction, Tier 2 strategies for short periods of small group instruction, and Tier 3 interventions for intensive instruction or support. Each of the interventions listed are broken down into four parts: structure, teach, rehearse, and reinforce. These ready-to-use strategies will help classroom teachers promote social competence in diverse learners.

This title recognizes the importance of offering stabilization strategies that afford students a better regulated body, often enabling students with classic autism to increase their time in school, most of them working up to full-day participation.

Combining their years of experience working with individuals on the autism spectrum, the authors bring practical ideas and teaching methods for offering visual supports to students with autism spectrum disorders.

Diverse learners with exceptional needs require a specialized curriculum that will help them to develop socially and intellectually in a way that traditional pedagogical practice is unable to fulfill. As educational technologies and theoretical approaches to learning continue to advance, so do the opportunities for exceptional children. Special and Gifted Education: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications is an exhaustive compilation of emerging research, theoretical concepts, and real-world examples of the ways in which the education of special needs and exceptional children is evolving. Emphasizing pedagogical innovation and new ways of looking at contemporary educational practice, this multi-volume reference work is ideal for inclusion in academic libraries for use by pre-service and in-service teachers, graduate-level students, researchers, and educational software designers and developers.