One goal of undergraduate engineering education is to prepare students with the knowledge, skills, and decision-making strategies that are necessary for success in engineering practice. One proposed method to teach students these skills is to incorporate habits of mind into K-12 and undergraduate curricula. Habits of mind are the intelligent,…

The sources contained within this annotated bibliography can help inform state efforts to define the competencies that students need to be able to demonstrate, determine how schools and districts can ensure that students master these competencies, and measure school and student progress toward college and career readiness and success goals. This…

This booklet on teaching social communication skills to individuals with autism discusses selection of social communication objectives, selection of learning environments, and methods of teaching social communication skills. Sample social communication objectives are presented, with a rationale, lead-up activities, teaching procedures, associated…

Current practices in implementing social skills instruction into elementary and secondary curricula are explored in this report. Two issues are addressed: (1) teacher reports of current and desired activities; and (2) the extent to which curriculum availability, other resources, teacher training, and values affect teacher activities.…

This booklet focuses on teaching individuals with autism some social rules and routines that can be used in a variety of situations and applied across settings. It addresses the selection of interpersonal skill objectives, motivating the person with autism to try to interact, teaching ways to express feelings, helping peers to interact with…

A conceptual framework of social competence is presented to formulate actions that will enhance the social competence of learners with mental disabilities. This chapter discusses the individual's culturally determined inputs; the processes of social affects, social skills, and social thinking; and the desired social outcomes. The history of social…

Steps for enhancing skills and motivation for solving interpersonal problems are included. In addition, reference is made to planning intervention for learning disabled students. (Author/SEW)

This paper views effective communication as an essential component of appropriate social behavior, provides definitions and conceptualizations of social skills and social competence within academic contexts, and describes social skills assessment and intervention procedures for school-age children and youth with and without disabilities.…

Ways to promote generalization of social skills of students with learning disabilities (LD) are considered. Approaches include: sequential modification, introducing naturally maintaining contingencies, training sufficient exemplars, training across settings, training loosely, using indiscriminable contingencies, programming common stimuli, and…

Reviews past and present conceptualizations and summarized narrative and meta-analytic reviews of social skills training (SST) outcome studies. Overall, modest effect sizes are reported in the meta-analytic literature, suggesting that SST is a relatively weak intervention strategy. Recommendations for rebuilding SST are provided. (Author/CR)

Areas of social behavior are reviewed in terms of the increasing emphasis on mainstreaming and normalization for children with special needs and the resulting concerns of psychologists and educators with the social interaction difficulties of learning disabled children. These areas of social behavior that contribute to a child's peer interactions…

Calls for an end to a "prevention war" mentality that breeds youth programs that are high profile, short term, and in competition with programs already in place. Instead, this article advocates for comprehensive, sustained efforts that promote the personal and social development of young people and address problems at their psychosocial…

This article discusses social behaviors related to success in school and offers practical suggestions for helping students with social-behavioral deficits to master them. Skills and subskills relating to peer relationships, work habits, and general coping are discussed. A teacher rating scale for assessing these skills is included. (PB)

Research on communication instruction for students with severe intellectual disabilities is reviewed, focusing on the pragmatic elements involved in accomplishing a successful communicative exchange. A federally funded project, called the "Conversation and Social Competence Research Project," is then described. The project sought to…

A description is provided of the Garrison Model, an educational therapeutic program for youth with severe behavior disorders which emphasizes a student's responsibility for choices that are made. The model was developed at the Garrison School, a public alternative day school in Illinois that serves students with severe behavioral disorders. The…