Beth

Montick 1
SPED 843: Advanced Methods & Assessment: Strategies for Students with Significant Behavior,
Social, & Emotional Need
Assessing Social Skill Deficits: Parts 1 & 2

Part 1: Assessment

Discrepancy Analysis Assessment for Bobby

Inventory of Non-Disabled
Inventory of Bobby Skills That Require Attention
Student

Shows interest in peers Mainly initiates Bobby will appropriately
and will consistently interactions with adults. engage in interactions
initiate conversations with Topics are odd and with peers in a group
peers and respond to limited (astronomy, setting in the classroom
peers. mathematical equations, without engaging in
Is able to converse on a computers, and computer verbal aggression.
variety of topics, software). Bobby will complete his
especially topics that he Historically, he has state in-class and homework
has in common interests that he is not interested in assignments for all
in with peers. peers, but he has recently subjects.
Actively participates in started showing interest Bobby will appropriately
groups with peers and in in girls of his age. leave conversations that
class discussions and Inability to have age- he does not have interest
activities. appropriate conversations in.
Completes homework and with peers. Bobby will engage in
in-class assignments that Exhibits verbal aggression perspective-taking
have been assigned for toward peers when his exercises to work on
the class. attempts to interact with understanding how peers
them are unsuccessful may be feeling when they
and when participating in are interacting with him.
group activities. Bobby will identify topics
Fails to turn is homework of conversation that
assignments frequently. would be interesting for
Refuses to participate in peers to talk about.
classroom discussions and Bobby will not engage in
assignments. verbal aggression toward
Confrontational with peers or teachers.
teachers.
Described by teachers as
exhibiting poor social skills
and immaturity for his
age.
 Beth Montick 2
SPED 843: Advanced Methods & Assessment: Strategies for Students with Significant Behavior,
Social, & Emotional Need
Assessing Social Skill Deficits: Parts 1 & 2

Bobby is a 9th grade student who exhibits social skill deficits that impact his ability to

function proficiently in school academically and with his peers. A social skills assessment was

completed for Bobby that included Discrepancy Analysis Assessment and a Direct Social Skills

Assessment. These assessments will function to inform the development of social skills

interventions for Bobby.

Direct Social Skill Assessment for Bobby
Form Context Reciprocity Goal Outcome
Initiate With peers in Peers do not Peer attention Unsuccessful
conversations the classroom respond to socially.
about Bobbys and school Bobbys
preferred environment. conversations
topics

Verbal With peers in Peers do not Escape from Unsuccessful
aggression group work interact or group work in the group
settings in the spend time settings setting and
classroom around Bobby Attention from with getting
With girls who when he peers attention
do not engages i n from peers.
respond to his verbal Possible
attempts at aggression. successful
conversation avoidance of
group work
since he is
being
educated
primarily 1:1
with a para at
this time.

Beth Montick 3
SPED 843: Advanced Methods & Assessment: Strategies for Students with Significant Behavior,
Social, & Emotional Need
Assessing Social Skill Deficits: Parts 1 & 2

Based on this analysis, Bobbys social skills deficits are causing difficulties in the classroom

and with peers. Bobby has begun to develop motivation to interact with peers but his immature

social skills have preventing him from having successful interactions with peers. His social skill

deficits are affecting his performance in the classroom as well. He has difficulty working in

groups, does not participate in classroom discussions, and has difficulty communicating

effectively with peers and his teachers.

Based on the social skills assessment, specific areas to focus intervention on can be

identified. Bobbys intervention will focus on developing his social skills to increase appropriate

interactions with peers and to improve his performance in the classroom. Much of Bobbys social

skill deficits are due to skill deficits in areas that he has not developed. His recent motivation to

interact with girls his age can help to get buy-in from Bobby to work on the intervention. A major

area that Bobby exhibits deficits in is perspective taking. This skill will be specifically targeted

during intervention. In addition, decreasing verbal aggression will be targeted. By learning

appropriate replacement behaviors in the form of more advanced conversation skills, Bobby will

learn to communicate effectively and improve his performance in the classroom and with peers.

Part 2: Interpretation and Analysis of Social Skills Assessment

Based on referral from his teachers, social skills assessment was completed for Bobby.

The assessment included a Discrepancy Analysis and Direct Social Skill Assessment. These

assessments served to identify areas of need for Bobby that will be targeted for intervention.

Bobbys social skill deficits have been interfering with his ability to fully function in the classroom

and with his peers. In the classroom, Bobby does not join group discussions, engages in verbal
Beth Montick 4
SPED 843: Advanced Methods & Assessment: Strategies for Students with Significant Behavior,
Social, & Emotional Need
Assessing Social Skill Deficits: Parts 1 & 2

aggression with peers during group work, and refuses to complete assignments for classes that

are not his favorite subjects. In the past, Bobby has stated that he has no interest in his peers.

He will primarily initiate interactions with adults. Bobby has a limited repertoire of conversation

topics and most are topics that peers generally perceive as odd. Recently, Bobby has shown

motivation to interact with peers, specifically girls of his age. His social skills deficits make it

difficult for him to interact with peers effectively. When peers do not respond to his initiations,

he will get verbally aggressive toward the peers.

Bobbys initial goals to be targeted for increasing his social skills are:

1. Bobby will work cooperatively with peers in small group settings in 80% of opportunities

without engaging in verbal aggression and completing a specified task.

2. Bobby will appropriately acknowledge the initiation of an interaction by a peer by giving an

appropriate response for 80% of opportunities.

3. Bobby will initiate conversation with peers about varied topics and engage in conversational

turn taking for 3-4 turns for 80% of opportunities.

Intervention Plan:

To target the Bobbys social skill goals, the focus will be on developing perspective taking

skills, increasing Bobbys conversational skills, and educating Bobby on appropriate social skills.

This will be targeted through direct instruction of the skills in a 1:1 and small group environment,

as well as, generalizing the skills to peers in the natural environment. The Social Detective social

skills curriculum will be used to educate Bobby on appropriate social skills. The program will be

modified to be age-appropriate for Bobby. This program teaches the vocabulary of social
Beth Montick 5
SPED 843: Advanced Methods & Assessment: Strategies for Students with Significant Behavior,
Social, & Emotional Need
Assessing Social Skill Deficits: Parts 1 & 2

thinking, different types of smarts, behaving physically and mentally in a group, and thinking

with your eyes.

Social stories will be used to target development of perspective taking skills and

conversational skills. Targeting perspective taking skills will teach Bobby to develop awareness of

others thinking and needs and how his behavior affects others. The Pictello app and Bobbys

iPad will be utilized to create age-appropriate social stories with embedded video modeling.

Peers will be used as the models in the videos.

The intervention will focus on using reinforcing materials with Bobby as positive

reinforcement and as materials for the intervention. Based on Bobbys interest in computers and

computer programming, the intervention will use computers and other electronic devices within

the program. A positive reinforcement system will be in place to reinforce Bobbys appropriate

behavior in groups and completing assignments in class.

Within direct instruction, visual and verbal prompts will be used to support the instruction

of these social skills. Bobby will master skills in the direct instruction environment prior to being

expected to exhibit the skills in the natural environment. Within the natural environment,

prompts will be more naturalistic.

Bobby will participate in a Lunch Club social group. This group will focus on targeting

conversational skills, specifically increasing the number of turns on a topic and engaging in

conversation about a variety of topics. The members of this group will be peer mediators who
Beth Montick 6
SPED 843: Advanced Methods & Assessment: Strategies for Students with Significant Behavior,
Social, & Emotional Need
Assessing Social Skill Deficits: Parts 1 & 2

are given training prior to the Lunch Club. The group will allow for social interaction

opportunities for Bobby that can be used to target his goals in a controlled setting.

When it is time to work on generalization of the skills, a self-management component will

be added to the plan for Bobby. He will be responsible for tracking his initiation of conversations

and the occurrence of challenging behavior. A points system will be implemented as positive

reinforcement for tracking his behaviors appropriately.

Evaluation Plan:

Data will be collected on the social skills goals being targeted for Bobby and the

occurrence of challenging behavior. The data that is collected will be graphed and visually

analyzed to ensure that the intervention is effective. If the intervention is not effective, then the

fidelity of the program will be evaluated. If fidelity is good but the intervention has not proven

effective for Bobby, then the intervention will be modified. Modifications will be made based on

the data collected and Bobbys performance during the intervention. Some areas that may be

modified are: the magnitude or type of reinforcement, the direct instruction procedures, the

prompting procedures, and the generalization procedures.

Intervention fidelity will be collected to ensure that the components of the intervention

are being implemented and being implemented accurately. If there is a lack of fidelity, then

additional training or possible program modifications will be made to ensure that the

intervention program is effective for Bobby.