Classroom management in middle school is a challenge—this article shows you how

Classroom Management: Implementing a System for Students with BD.

Behavioral techniques derived from social learning theory to training social skills are reviewed. Studies using both handicapped and nonhandicapped populations are included. The literature is divided into four broad areas for review purposes: (1) manipulation of antecedents, (2) manipulation of consequences, (3) modeling, and (4) cognitive-behavioral techniques. Issues such as conceptualization and definition of social skills, social skills assessment, and components of social skills are also considered. It is concluded that social skills training represents a potentially effective approach to successful mainstreaming of handicapped children. More research using between-groups designs, technique comparisons, discriminant analysis, and social validation of behavior changes is needed. The issues of generalization and maintenance are also discussed.

Social Skills Training with Handicapped Children: A Review

This paper asserts that mainstreaming is based in part upon three faulty assumptions: (a) placement of handicapped children in regular classrooms will result in increased social interaction between handicapped and nonhandicapped children; (b) placement of handicapped children in regular classrooms will result in increased social acceptance of handicapped children by their nonhandicapped peers; and (c) mainstreamed handicapped children will model the behavior of their nonhandicapped peers because of increased exposure to them. A large body of research is reviewed which refutes these three assumptions. An alternative approach is suggested whereby handicapped children would be taught the requisite social skills for effective social interaction and peer acceptance. Social skills curricula for use by both special and regular education teachers are suggested for accomplishing this end.

Misguided Mainstreaming: The Case for Social Skills Training with Handicapped Children

Prior efforts to systematicall y organize and define the growing area of social-skill training with children are characterized by several major shortcomings that may impede the progress of future research. As an alternative, the present article explores the purposes, methods, major findings, and future directions of socialskill training research from the perspective of a cognitive-social learning explanation of behavior change. Social-learning principles are utilized to provide both an explanatory framework and a potential technology for social-skill training methodology. Attention is devoted to conceptualizi ng skill-trainin g methods in terms of theoretically derived variables and components as well as formal properties of training. Findings from empirical research are reviewed with respect to important or promising variables, their hypothesized function in behavior change, and their demonstrated effects on children's social behavior. Current and future research trends are discussed in light of the proposed model and available empirical evidence. During the last two decades, investigators working within developmental, clinical, and educational disciplines have contributed to a growing body of literature on social-skill training with children. Social skills, as denned in this article, refer to children's ability to organize cognitions and behaviors into an integrated course of action directed toward culturally acceptable social or interpersonal goals. Also included in this definition is the propensity to continuously assess and modify goal-directed behavior so as to maximize the likelihood of reaching one's goals. Current research efforts reflect a common interest in social behavioral change during childhood and a commitment to training paradigms based on principles of learning and instruction. Despite these similarities, it is apparent that investigations within each discipline differ in terms of analytic and technological objectives and thus scientific and practical contributions.

A Cognitive-Social Learning Model of Social-Skill Training.

Social skills and adaptive behavior represent two subdomains of the superordinate construct of social competence. Adaptive behavior is viewed as the effectiveness and degree to which an individual meets social/cultural standards of personal independence and social responsibility. Social skills represent behaviors which, in specific situations, predict important social outcomes for children and youth. This article presents a conceptualization of social competence relevant for school settings. Relationships between adaptive behavior and social skills are documented and a classification system for social competence deficits is provided. Assessment procedures for classification and intervention purposes will be described with special reference to commonly used adaptive behavior measures.

The Relationship Between Adaptive Behavior and Social Skills: Issues in Definition and Assessment

Social skills in the classroom

Teaching Skills to Children With Learning and Behavior Disorders

Teaching Mainstreamed Students

This dictionary of Latin American racial and ethnic terminology now features terms of the French American and American French Creole Caribbean. It also introduces new symbols and abbreviations, and cross references more terms between and among Spanish, Portuguese and French.

Thomas M. Stephens

Papers

Social skills in the classroom

Teaching Skills to Children With Learning and Behavior Disorders

Teaching Mainstreamed Students

Dictionary of Latin American racial and ethnic terminology

Dictionary of Latin American Racial and Ethnic Terminology