In this interview, a special educator and sports writer talks about the role that baseball can play in bringing young people with and without learning disabilities together. He exemplifies how a game can provide extensive opportunities for social interactions and establishes why playing baseball is more suitable for teaching social skills to…

By teaching social rules thought to be necessary for social competence, social skills training (SST) curricula aim to improve indicators of well-being for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), such as the attainment of meaningful friendships. However, several recent meta-analyses indicate that SST curricula may fall short of these…

Schools are facing increasing demands to prepare students for rapid economic, environmental and social changes, for jobs that have not yet been created, for technologies that have not yet been invented, and to solve social problems that have not yet been anticipated. Education can equip learners with the agency, the competencies and the sense of…

This is a commentary on educating leaders within the constraints of a highly technical curriculum. The U.S. Naval Academy's mission is to produce leaders for the nation. Many things compete for the time and attention of Midshipmen (the Academy's students). Greater attention must be paid to interpersonal communications skills in the formal and…

This commentary endorses J. Kagan's (2008) conclusion that many of the most dramatic findings on early perceptual, cognitive, and social competencies are ambiguous. It supports his call for converging research operations to disambiguate findings from single paradigms and single response indices. The commentary also argues that early competencies…

This paper presents the position that inclusion is limited; inclusion does not go far enough. The inclusive classroom has been assessed to be of benefit both to the teacher and student. There are, however, limits set on inclusion. In most classrooms only children with learning disability are included omitting those with severe disabilities,…

Argues that personal integration and transfer of interpersonal skills is more likely if significant attention is given to the learning phase of skills training. Presents guidelines, as part of an integrative approach, to help trainers create conditions that encourage learners to discover personal meaning of skills. (Author/NB)

The development of interpersonal skills is essential to the training of helping professionals and adult educators. Attending, responding, and understanding are basic skills needed by adult educators to assist adult learners in achieving their goals. (JOW)

Through the identification and development of interpersonal, nontechnical skills, the author has mapped techniques implicit for success within corporations, professions, government agencies, and colleges. These skills are called Critical Career Competences, and have been identified from research about successful career moves. (Author/KC)

Notes that effective educational leaders combine knowledge, technical expertise, and interpersonal skill. Justifies the time and effort required to develop interpersonal skills that facilitate collaboration between teachers and supervisors. Suggests that Theory Z management principles and behavior modeling methods have much to offer to the…

Recent research has demonstrated that social skills training can be successful in bringing about enduring gains in unpopular children's sociometric status among peers. Further progress in promoting social competence in peer relations will depend upon the development of a framework for conceptualizing the process components underlying social…

The authors discuss the different methods of interpersonal skills training, focusing on the most commonly applied method, that of role playing used in a skills workshop context. (MEAD Subscriptions, CSML, University of Lancaster, Lancaster LA1 4YX, England) (SSH)

This response to Chandler et al. (EC 604 147) suggests that generalization of social competence training be viewed from both functional and topographical perspectives which have scientific and practice biases, respectively. The paper proposes a generalization-discrimination continuum along which behaviors may be placed for optimum utility. (DB)

Social skills training practices for persons with mental retardation are summarized, along with reasons for their lack of maintenance and generalization. A cognitive-behavioral definition and model of social competence and social skills are described, which unify social learning concepts with recent research and practice and focus on their utility…

In this article, the authors discuss the important role of dramatic ("pretend") play in early childhood with increasing emphasis at school on developing academic skills in children at younger and younger ages. Play is especially beneficial to children's learning when it reaches a certain degree of sophistication. In other words, "unproductive"…