title: Social skills training for youth with autism spectrum disorders.
abstract: Social skill deficits are a pervasive and enduring feature of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). As such, social skills training (SST) should be a critical component of programming for youth with ASD. A number of SST strategies exist, including those employing social stories, video modeling interventions, social problem solving, pivotal response training, scripting procedures, computer-based interventions, priming procedures, prompting procedures, and self-monitoring. This article summarizes each intervention strategy and provides results from several research studies. Social skills assessment is a crucial first step to SST, and a number of assessment measures are described. Meta-analytic reviews of the research provide further recommendations for successful SST programs.
authors.affiliation: Indiana Resource Center for Autism, Indiana University, 2853 East Tenth Street, Bloomington, IN 47408, USA. sbellini@indiana.edu
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bellini
authors.forename: Jessica K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Peters
mesh_terms: D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D018187:Personal Construct Theory; D010552:Personality Assessment; D012920:Social Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D012984:Software; D013813:Therapy, Computer-Assisted