Social Skills Training for Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Social skill deficits are a pervasive and enduring feature of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). As such, social skills training (SST) should be a critical component of programming for youth with ASD. A number of SST strategies exist, including those employing social stories, video modeling interventions, social problem solving, pivotal response training, scripting procedures, computer-based interventions, priming procedures, prompting procedures, and self-monitoring. This article summarizes each intervention strategy and provides results from several research studies. Social skills assessment is a crucial first step to SST, and a number of assessment measures are described. Meta-analytic reviews of the research provide further recommendations for successful SST programs.