Teaching Adult Social Skills-Soft Skills for Employment (PDF)

Teaching Adult Social Skills/Soft Skills for Employment L. Pearl Colbert, MA, BCBA, LMFT Clinical Supervisor, Social Skills Lead  Agenda • What is Autism? • Behavior Principles – Reinforcement & Extinction • What are Social Skills? • Teaching Social Skills • “Soft Skills” for Employment 2  “If you’ve met one person with Autism, then you’ve met one person with Autism.” ~Dr. Stephen Shore 3  Autism Spectrum Disorder DSM 5 Criteria • Diagnostic Criteria for 299.00 Autism Spectrum Disorder • Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts, as manifested by the following, currently or by history (examples are illustrative, not exhaustive; see text): • 1. Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, ranging, for example, from abnormal social approach and failure of normal back-and-forth conversation; to reduced sharing of interests, emotions, or affect; to failure to initiate or respond to social interactions. • 2. Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction, ranging, for example, from poorly integrated verbal and nonverbal communication; to abnormalities in eye contact and body language or deficits in understanding and use of gestures; to a total lack of facial expressions and nonverbal communication. • 3. Deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding of relationships, ranging, for example, from difficulties adjusting behavior to suit various social contexts; to difficulties in sharing imaginative play or in making friends; to absence of interest in peers.  Autism Spectrum Disorder DSM 5 Criteria • Severity is based on social communication impairments and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior. • Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities, as manifested by at least two of the following, currently or by history (examples are illustrative, not exhaustive; see text): • Stereotyped or repetitive motor movements, use of objects, or speech (e.g., simple motor stereotypes, lining up toys or flipping objects, echolalia, idiosyncratic phrases). • Insistence on sameness, inflexible adherence to routines, or ritualized patterns of verbal or nonverbal behavior (e.g., extreme distress at small changes, difficulties with transitions, rigid thinking patterns, greeting rituals, need to take same route or eat same food every day). • Highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus (e.g., strong attachment to or preoccupation with unusual objects, excessively circumscribed or perseverative interests). • Hyper- or hyporeactivity to sensory input or unusual interest in sensory aspects of the environment (e.g. apparent indifference to pain/temperature, adverse response to specific sounds or textures, excessive smelling or touching of objects, visual fascination with lights or movement).  Social Skill Goals • Communication Goals: • Greetings • Initiating conversation • Responding to others • Responding on topic • Sustained reciprocal conversation • Asking questions/asking follow up questions • Ending conversations • Tone, voice volume • Shifting topics within conversation • Executive Functioning Goals • Problem Solving • Perspective taking • Behavioral Flexibility • Discriminating Figurative vs. Literal Language • Predicting Outcomes • Acknowledging Own Mistakes • Tolerating Feedback • Recall & Restate Information • Planning & Organization  Social Skills Goals • Interpersonal Skills • Eye Contact • Identify Interests of Others • Appropriately Entering/Exiting Conversations • Maintain Appropriate Personal Space • Identify and Appropriately Respond to Social Cues • Appropriate vs. Inappropriate Flirting Behavior • Identify Public vs. Private Behavior • Sharing contact information • Self disclosures  Key Concepts for Applying Interventions • Reinforcement • Extinction  Reinforcement • The most important principle of behavior (Cooper et al., 2007). • It is a key element of most behavior change programs designed by behavior analysts (Cooper et al., 2007). • The principle of reinforcement is also a law (Martin & Pear, 2011).  2 Types of Reinforcement Positive Reinforcement: • Occurs when a behavior is followed immediately by the presentation of a stimulus and, as a result, that behavior occurs more often in the future. (Cooper et al., 2007, P. 701) • Roughly synonymous with the term “Reward” (Martin & Pear, 2011, p. 32) Negative Reinforcement: • When the frequency of a behavior increases because past responses have resulted in the withdrawal or termination of a stimulus (Cooper et al., 2007, p. 292) • Both types of reinforcement increase behavior  2 Types of Reinforcement • The terms “Positive” and “Negative” do not correspond to the everyday use of the words. • Positive = Adding something to increase a behavior • Negative = Removing something or taking something away to increase behavior  Choosing a Behavior to be Reinforced • Choose a behavior that is socially relevant and will aid the learner in developing meaningful and useful skills. • Be specific about the identified behavior instead of choosing a broad category such as “being good” or “being more friendly” (Martin & Pear, 2011) • This helps you to reinforce the identified behavior more consistently (Martin & Pear, 2011) Giving compliments Saying nice things Being Friendly  Choosing Reinforcers • Unconditioned Reinforcers: • Do not require previous learning history to be reinforcing. • These are reinforcers for virtually everyone • Examples: Food, sleep, water, and oxygen • You can usually count on these items to be effective reinforcers  Conditioned Reinforcers • Require previous learning history and are not inherently reinforcing • Examples: Praise, toys, and access to activities  Reinforcers for employers in a variety of work settings • Special Attention Reinforcers: – Praise – Praise in front of others – Special work assignments – Reserved parking space – Choice of work attire – Invitation to higher level meetings – Solicitation of opinions and ideas 15 (Martin & Pear, 2011)