A lack of social competence is one of the primary characteristics of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This pervasive lack of social competence can cause individuals with ASD to struggle to develop meaningful social relationships with peers and adults across their lifetime. Thus, learning appropriate socialization skills is an essential component in the education of this population. The purpose of the current study was to provide an initial investigation into the effectiveness of a comprehensive social skills training intervention on the social competence of young children with ASD using direct recording methods. Eight students with ASD between the ages of 5 and 7 years, with current placements in self-contained kindergarten or first grade classrooms in the public school setting participated in a 12 week intervention. The intervention implemented was “The Incredible Flexible You: A Social Thinking Curriculum for Preschool and Early Elementary Years” (Hendrix, Palmer, Tarshis, & Winner, 2013), a packaged, multi-sensory social skills training program developed to promote the social competence of young children with ASD. The intervention was presented daily for approximately 20 minutes in a small group school setting. Using a concurrent multiple baseline across participants single-case research design, the research study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the program upon the participant’s positive social initiations, positive social responses, and active engagement during recess. Observational data were collected utilizing both a frequency behavior count system and a timed interval behavioral observation system. Additionally, data were collected via the Autism Social Skills Profile (ASSP; Bellini & Hopf, 2007) through pre- and post-intervention parent forms to determine the effects of the program on the overall social functioning of the participants. Procedural fidelity was collected throughout the research, and social validity was also assessed utilizing the Behavior Intervention Rating Profile (BIRP, Von Brock & Elliott, 1987). Overall, participants made slight gains in social competency, yet the data did not support a functional relation between the intervention and dependent variables. Individual participant progress was discussed in detail. Limitations of the study and implications for practice and future research in social competency for young children with ASD were further discussed.

There is a lack of simple random sample based research into whether there are social skill and behavior problem differences for six- to eleven-year-old boys and girls which correlate with rates of parental alcohol consumption, social sequelae of parental alcohol consumption, reported level of marital conflict, and extended family history of alcoholism. This simple random sample study correlates the above variables with T scores on the behavior problem and social competence scales of the Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist and Child Behavior Checklist - Teacher's Report Form for six- to eleven-year-old children (N=lOO). Behavior problem scales include disorders of affect, thought, and conduct, and attentional problems. Social competence scales include measures of activity level, social involvement, and school performance and working hard, behaving appropriately, learning, and happiness at school. Variables which demonstrate high correlations (p ≤ .05) are also examined using multiple regression. Both males and females are shown to be impacted both in magnitude and pervasiveness of effect. The single most affected dependent variable for both males and females is delinquent behaviors. Dad's score on the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test is the independent variable that most frequently predicts the largest amount of variance in regression equations.

Children with Asperger's Disorder are considered to have impairments in social interaction, but to date few studies have empirically addressed this issue. This study examined the existence of social skills deficits in children with Asperger's Disorder, children with social phobia, and children with no psychological disorder. Using direct observation of social skills during role-play tasks, blinded observers rated an overall impression of social effectiveness and three specific categories of social skill: pragmatic behavior (e.g., effort to maintain conversation, latency to respond), speech and prosodic behavior (e.g., vocal inflection, voice volume), and paralinguistic conversational behaviors (e.g., facial orientation, motor movement). Children with Asperger's Disorder did not display predicted social skills deficits when compared to typically developing children. When compared to children with social phobia, children with Asperger's Disorder were rated as significantly more socially effective and were rated as more skilled on the molecular conversational behaviors that create an overall impression of social effectiveness. These results suggest that children with Asperger's Disorder display adequate social skill during brief social interactions. Furthermore, the social skills deficits present in children with social phobia are not the same deficits found in children with Asperger's Disorder. Implications of the findings are discussed.

The purpose of this non-experimental study was to investigate teacher empowerment and the participatory management within the schools’ cultures. Also, the study investigated the teachers’ expectations of their students’ social skill competency needs and classroom behavioral practices within the existing school culture. Pearson r coefficients were used to determine the degree of relationship between teachers’ perceived empowerment and school culture. Independent t-tests were run on the mean scores between middle school and high school teacher perception of autonomy and collaborative leadership. Responses to an open-ended questionnaire were analyzed as qualitative data on teacher expectations of student social skill competency. Descriptive profiles of the administrators’ strategies in the process of decision making and the formal structured participative management system were calculated. Cross tabulation of school, gender, and years of experience for the administrators’ participatory leadership was included. After data was analyzed, a positive correlation was determined for teacher empowerment and school culture from both the middle school and the high school. The independent t-tests indicated statistically significant differences between the two groups of teachers for autonomy and collaborative leadership. The data from the open-ended questionnaire indicated that teachers’ expectations of social skills in the classroom include cooperation and self-control, but not necessarily assertion. Administrators from both the middle school and the high school agreed that there exists a degree of participatory management. The male administrators with more years experience indicated that explicit procedures for participatory management are only used some of the time and exist infrequently at their schools. It was concluded that overall, the middle school fostered a school climate where teacher empowerment was facilitated by the administration and the teachers. Recommendations included a future study involving teacher empowerment in elementary schools and participatory leadership style in relationship to gender.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the influence of interviewee social skill on the use and effectiveness of impression management (IM), as well as interviewers’ perceptions of the use of IM during the employment interview. One hundred and nine participants completed mock employment interviews for developmental purposes. An antecedent model whereby IM partially mediated the effect of social skill on interview performance was supported for observer-coded self-promotion. In contrast, a moderator model was supported for self-reported deceptive IM, as interviewees were more likely to positively influence their interview performance with the use of deceptive IM when they were high on social skill. In addition, although interviewers were mostly inaccurate in their perceptions of deceptive IM, social skill did not moderate the amount of agreement between self- and interviewer-ratings of IM. Implications for research and practice are discussed. / Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

This research investigated the perception of social presence that students in a virtual high school have of using computer-mediated communication (CMC): email, discussion board, tutoring sessions, and asynchronous classroom activities. The research analyzed data for social presence based on gender, years of experience in a cyber school, and self-proficiency ratings on each form of CMC. The purpose of this study was to identify if high school students in a virtual community perceive email, discussion board, tutoring sessions and asynchronous classroom activities as enhancing their social presence within the virtual community. The findings of the study are: <br>1. Students perceived that email showed more social presence than the other forms of CMC and asynchronous classroom activities showed more social presence than discussion board and tutoring sessions. <br>2. There was no significant difference found between male and females social presence in any of the CMC studied. <br>3. Students who rate their own self proficiency as being above average or expert had higher social presence scores on email and asynchronous classroom activities than students who rate their proficiency average, below average or novice. <br>4. Students perceived that email showed more social interaction than discussion board, tutoring session and asynchronous classroom activities. Asynchronous classroom activities showed more social interaction than discussion board or tutoring sessions. <br>5. The number of years a student attends a cyber school has no relationship with the student's perceived social presence in any form of CMC studied. <br> Understanding students' perception of social presence based on the use of CMC will enable cyber schools to use the appropriate form of CMC to help students develop their social skills. / School of Education / Instructional Technology (EdDIT) / EdD / Dissertation

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Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-27T14:20:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Maira Ribeiro Magri.pdf: 752733 bytes, checksum: af7ce31e8751e2549e6bc05bca14762c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-16 / This study aimed to compare the effects of FAP and THS interventions on behaviors related to social skills class (or social anxiety disorder) of an adult participant with social phobic, to assess the level of anxiety during the intervention and between sessions, and to compare the results of the SPIN and IHS before and after the intervention and compare. For that, it was used an AB1CB2 multiple baseline design between behaviors where A was the baseline phase, B1 and B2 were phases in which two classes of behavior (C1 and C2) were submitted to FAP interventions and other two (C3 and C4) were submitted to THS interventions, and C was intervention phase classes of behavior (C1 and C2) were submitted to THS interventions and other two (C3 and C4) were submitted to FAP interventions. The results showed an increase in the frequency of occurrence of classes throughout the sessions and the highest frequencies were in the sessions of FAP. The participant related a higher level of anxiety in THS sessions compared to FAP. The application of the instruments, showed no difference between aplications before and after interventions. The data indicated that FAP may be effective in the interventions for social skill behaviors. However, further studies should be performed either to evaluate the generalization and for provide more evidence of the effectiveness and provide the area of research and application the possibility of providing more effective treatments to behavior problems. / O presente estudo teve como objetivo comparar os efeitos das intervenções FAP e THS nas classes de comportamentos relacionados a habilidades sociais (ou ansiedade social) de um participante adulto fóbico social, comparar os resultados das aplicações do SPIN e do IHS antes e depois da intervenção; avaliar o nível de ansiedade ao longo da intervenção e entre as sessões. Para isso, foi utilizado um delineamento AB1CB2 de linha de base múltipla entre comportamentos sendo A a fase de linha de base, B1 e B2 as fases em que duas classes de comportamento (C1 e C2) passaram por intervenções FAP e outras duas (C3 e C4) por intervenção THS e C a fase em que as classes C1 e C2 passaram por THS e C3 e C4 foram submetidas a intervenção FAP. Os resultados apontaram um aumento na frequência de ocorrência das classes de comportamento sob intervenção ao longo das sessões, com maiores frequências nas sessões de FAP. O participante relatou maior nível de ansiedade nas sessões de THS comparado às de FAP. Em relação às aplicações dos instrumentos, não foi possível observar diferença entre as aplicações realizadas antes da linha de base e ao final das intervenções. Os dados indicaram que a FAP também pode ser eficaz no tratamento de comportamentos relacionados a habilidades sociais. Contudo, novos estudos devem ser realizados tanto para avaliar a generalização como para fornecer mais evidências da eficácia e prover à área de pesquisa e de aplicação a possibilidade de fornecer tratamentos mais eficazes aos comportamentos problemas.