Social Skills for Behaviorally Disordered Children as Preparation for Mainstreaming: Theory, Practice, and New Directions

Behaviorally disordered children experience social rejection in mainstreamed settings, and this conflicts with the goals of mainstreaming. A conceptual framework of social competence is presented, within which specific social skills are identified. The literature on social skills training is reviewed. Although social skills training holds promise for improving social competence, it fails to address the social perception biases of peers. It is argued that social perception biases help sustain negative peer relationships. Thus, addressing social perception biases in group social skills training interventions should improve the effectiveness of social skills training interventions, and the mainstreamed experiences of behaviorally disordered children should be more successful.