Teaching Social Skills: A Science-Based Approach (Volume 2, Episode 12)

Davey and Angela take on the topic of teaching students social skills in school and how to do this. They do this by critically reviewing the June 22, 2024 blog post by Dr. Howie Knoff. Dr. Howie advocates for a behavioral approach to teaching social skills in schools, particularly to pre-K through 3rd-grade students. Your Hosts echo Dr. Howie noting that current social-emotional learning (SEL) programs often lack the necessary behavioral instruction and practice to produce lasting change. They emphasize the importance of explicitly teaching specific social skills, using a structured, evidence-based program like his "Stop & Think Social Skills Program." The "Stop & Think Program" has been an evidence-based (through SAMHSA) and CASEL-approved (since 2005) curriculum that incorporates modeling, role-playing, feedback, and transfer into applied classroom and school setting. The curriculum's success relies on a five-step universal language that embeds specific social skill steps. The universal language has students telling themselves to: Stop and Think, Consider their Good or Bad Choices, Identify the Choices/Steps they need to make, Do It, and Tell themselves they did a Good Job. Davey and Angela detail the scientific basis and practical application of teaching social skills in general education classrooms, highlighting the importance of consistent teacher fidelity and multi-tiered support systems for students.