From the point of view that every child is unique and valuable, the need for developing their skills and abilities, and their need for learning and development, in the context of their learning styles/developmental characteristics, must be supported. Because of social-emotional learning skills are comprehensive and very important skills, teaching…

This study examines the agreement across informant pairs of teachers, parents, and students regarding the students' social-emotional learning (SEL) competencies. Two student subsamples representative of the social skills improvement system (SSIS) SEL edition rating forms national standardization sample were examined: first, 168 students (3rd to…

Children and youth with deficits in social competence present substantial challenges for schools, teachers, parents and peers. These challenges cut across disciplinary, instructional and interpersonal domains and they frequently create chaotic home, school and classroom environments. Schools are charged with teaching an increasingly diverse…

Universal screening for emotional and behavioral risk in schools facilitates early identification and intervention for students as part of multitiered systems of support. Early identification has the potential to mitigate adverse outcomes of emotional and behavioral disorders. The purpose of this study was to extend existing research on the…

Social skills are specific behaviors that individuals exhibit in order to successfully complete social tasks whereas social competence represents judgments by significant others that these social tasks have been successfully accomplished. The present investigation identified the best sociobehavioral predictors obtained from different raters…

This study compared the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS; Gresham & Elliott, 1990) with the revision of the SSRS, now called the Social Skills Improvement System-Rating Scales (SSIS-RS; Gresham & Elliott, 2008), across three raters (teacher, parent, and student) for elementary- and secondary-aged students. A detailed comparison of these…

Research has been unsuccessful at revealing an analogue to curriculum-based measurement in the area of progress monitoring for social behavior. As a result, there is a need to develop change-sensitive, technically adequate, feasible progress monitoring tools for social behavior that represent general outcome measures of performance. The purpose of…

One of the most consistent findings in rating scale research with children and adolescents is the modest agreement among different informants' ratings. The present study systematically explored patterns of agreement among teachers, parents/caregivers, and students in domains of social skills and problem behaviors using the Social Skills…

Base rate information is important in clinical assessment because one cannot know how unusual or typical a phenomenon is without first knowing its base rate in the population. This study empirically determined the base rates of social skills acquisition and performance deficits, social skills strengths, and problem behaviors using a nationally…

Secondary students with or at risk for emotional and/or behavioral disorders (EBD) can be characterized as having severe deficits in social competence. Moreover, as students transition into the secondary grades, social competence takes on increased complexity and importance. Social skills training (SST) represents a class of interventions…

Comparison of positive social behaviors and peer acceptance of 100 mainstreamed learning disabled and 100 nondisabled children revealed significant differences in peer acceptance and in task-related, interpersonal, environmentally and self-related behaviors. Deficits were evident in both school and home settings and were consistent across teacher,…

The article suggests that mainstreaming efforts have been largely unsuccessful because of faulty assumptions, focus on academic attainment for handicapped children, and failure to consider the social development of handicapped children. Self-efficacy theory is cited as a way to refocus the process and teach positive social behaviors to…

Behavioral techniques derived from social learning theory to training social skills are reviewed. Studies using handicapped and nonhandicapped populations are included. It is concluded that social skills training represents a potentially effective appraoch to successful mainstreaming of handicapped children. The issues of generalization and…

Defines social skills and reviews recent advances in the assessment and classification of children's social skills. Notes that social skills have been shown to be critical prerequisites to academic and interpersonal success, making knowledge of advances in the evaluation of social skills essential to functioning of school counselors. (Author/NB)

The article examines advances and remaining psychometric problems in social skills assessment technology for students with learning disabilities. Assessment is related to a proposed definition of learning disabilities by the Interagency Committee on Learning Disabilities which identifies social skills deficits as a primary learning disability. (DB)