Social Skills Training with Handicapped Children: A Review

Behavioral techniques derived from social learning theory to training social skills are reviewed. Studies using both handicapped and nonhandicapped populations are included. The literature is divided into four broad areas for review purposes: (1) manipulation of antecedents, (2) manipulation of consequences, (3) modeling, and (4) cognitive-behavioral techniques. Issues such as conceptualization and definition of social skills, social skills assessment, and components of social skills are also considered. It is concluded that social skills training represents a potentially effective approach to successful mainstreaming of handicapped children. More research using between-groups designs, technique comparisons, discriminant analysis, and social validation of behavior changes is needed. The issues of generalization and maintenance are also discussed.