How should we assess social skills?

There are several ways to assess social skills:

The Interview

The interview is the traditional method of assessing social skills and assumes that children are potentially the richest source of information about themselves.  When assessing a child using an interview method, it is an opportunity to observe them interacting on a one-to-one basis and to give them the opportunity to talk about those aspects of themselves which they think are the most importance. It is also a valuable source of information about their self-awareness and awareness of others. 

Observation

Observations in the child’s everyday environment are valuable but they are also time consuming.  Video recordings can help, otherwise a structured observational checklist needs to be used.  Observations can be done: in vivo which are most desirable but least practical; using naturalistic interactions, i.e. structured or staged interactions which are intended to parallel in vivo encounters, or role play, where the therapist can present the person with a wide range of potentially relevant situations that cannot be easily replicated in the natural environment.

Rating Scales

Rating scales are an extremely useful measure of change.  Information can be obtained about the child’s behaviour by observing them in actual social interactions in their everyday environment (see above) or by talking to a number of people who know the child well.  The information is then transferred onto a rating scale.  Rating scales use either numbers or descriptions to rate each skill, and some use a combination of both.  For example, Talkabout uses several 4-point rating scales which are then transferred onto a summary pie chart. 

Self-Assessment

Self-reports or self-assessments can be useful to assess the child’s awareness of their communication and to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment.  However, a child needs to be able to self-assess and this will only be possible in children who are developmentally at a stage where they can reflect on their own communication (see previous issue). 

Ideally, therefore, assessment should include some 1:1 time with the child to assess their self and other awareness and their awareness of their social skills, and a full assessment of their social skills using observations and a rating scale completed by the teacher (and child where appropriate).

What should we assess?

It is important to assess all social skills prior to intervention so that we can decide where we need to start work and also so that we have a baseline assessment from which to measure success.  An assessment of social skills should therefore include an assessment of self-awareness, body language, paralinguistic skills, conversational skills and assertiveness skills.

Planning intervention

Following assessment, it is then necessary to choose the goal of intervention.  Choosing the right skill to work on first has to be the most important part of intervention as it is the difference between potentially setting a child up to fail and success.  Results from social skills work in the early nineties lead to the development of a hierarchy which is the basis of the Talkabout resources.  It was found that the success of intervention increased if non-verbal behaviours were taught prior to verbal behaviours, and assertiveness was taught last. For example, children working on their verbal or conversational skills progressed more if they already had good non-verbal skills, and children working on their assertiveness progressed significantly more if they had existing good non-verbal and verbal skills. 

In addition, it was found that a basic self and other awareness was important to teach as a pre-requisite to social skills training and that if children were able to assess their own social skills, then this was a good predictor of success for intervention.

A hierarchy was therefore proposed, piloted and found to be highly successful.

The hierarchical approach to teaching social skills

Awareness of self and others

Awareness of communication (optional - if possible for child to self-assess)

Non-verbal behaviour or foundation skills i.e. body language and paralinguistic skills

Verbal behaviour i.e. conversational skills

Assertive behaviour

Using this hierarchical approach, students are able to start at a level that is appropriate to their needs and progress up the levels to reach their full potential. This hierarchical approach forms the basis of all the Talkabout resources.

So having assessed the social skills and identified where you need to start work, then choosing the right intervention programme is the next step.  This is the best part obviously!  But we do need to consider all the different options for intervention.

Over the next few issues we will look at some direct instructional approaches such as running groups, social stories and comic strip conversations. 

We will also look at using peers as part of the intervention and also how to use the environment to maximise the effectiveness of our work. 

Alex Kelly
Speech & language therapist and social skills consultant www.alexkelly.biz

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