Promoting Social Skills in the Inclusive Classroom

Kimber L. Wilkerson, PhD, is Professor of Special Education and Chair of the Department of Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Before earning her doctorate, Dr. Wilkerson was a special educator in a day treatment program for students with emotional and behavioral disorders and cotaught in an inclusive elementary school program. She has published and presented on topics such as providing instruction to students in alternative settings and combining academic with social skills instruction--particularly in the area of reading. She also has experience providing both inservice and preservice instruction to increase the capacity of teachers to meet the academic and social skills needs of students with learning and behavioral disorders.Aaron B. T. Perzigian, MS, is a full-time graduate student pursuing his doctorate in the Department of Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Mr. Perzigian is licensed to teach middle and high school English. Prior to graduate school, he worked as an English teacher and cross-categorical special educator in a residential treatment setting. His research interests include alternative education, dropout prevention, and social competence development for children and adolescents with disabilities.Jill K. Schurr, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at Austin College in Sherman, Texas. Dr. Schurr has developed partnerships with local schools and psychological clinics to promote the increased implementation of positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) programs and availability of applied behavior analysis services in the community. Before earning her doctorate, she was a middle school teacher at an alternative school and worked as a research assistant on the Multimodal Treatment of ADHD study sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health, providing interventions for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Dr. Schurr has published and presented on topics such as academic learning time, using a PBIS model to improve outcomes for students with emotional and behavioral disorders, and professional development to increase teachers' use of behavior strategies in the classroom.Â

I found this book to have great potential for use in schools. Accessible and well organized, it provides essential content to help educators and school psychologists promote students' social skills. Strong ideas are presented for conceptualizing and addressing social competence with the majority of students, small groups, and the few students who need individualized attention. This book will serve as an ideal required text for my yearly graduate course in social skills instruction.--Douglas Cheney, PhD, College of Education, University of WashingtonThis timely book addresses the often-overlooked importance of social competence in the inclusive classroom, and includes a comprehensive review of relevant research. A highlight of the work is an excellent chapter about capitalizing on the power of peers. The authors show how creating a socially rich classroom environment can improve achievement for all students. The book artfully moves from the classroom level to the level of the individual student, and carefully ties in strategies for individual skills assessment and progress monitoring.--Julie Causton, PhD, Inclusive and Special Education Program, Syracuse UniversityAn excellent resource. Based on a strong theoretical foundation that explains how and why social competence matters in the classroom, this book provides practical, evidence-based guidelines for helping students with and without disabilities to develop social skills and competencies. The authors present a broad range of assessment techniques, along with strategies for schoolwide, classroom-level, and individualized prevention, intervention, and instruction. This is an invaluable book for elementary educators who work in inclusive classrooms, as well as preservice teachers and practitioners who wish to do so.--Kathryn Wentzel, PhD, Department of Human Development, University of Maryland, College Park -This book is an important source of information for teachers in the current school system, particularly those educating in inclusive classroom settings….Through this book's discussion of the various evidence-based intervention plans and strategies…Wilkerson and colleagues demonstrate the importance of promoting social competence on both the students' academic achievement as well as their long-term adult outcomes. This makes it important for all educators to take the time to read this book and be aware of and knowledgeable about the different intervention, curriculum, and teaching strategies they can use to increase their students' social competence to, in turn, promote peer and teacher acceptance or approval, school attachment, and ultimately school and post-school success….It is particularly important for teachers in inclusive classrooms to read this book because the evidence-based strategies and tools discussed have proved to be especially successful at improving the social, emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes of students with disabilities.--Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 1/1/2016

• 1. The Importance of Social Skills2. The Wide and Varied Definitions of Social Competence 3. Schoolwide Approaches to Social Skills Development, with Catherine R. Lark4. Classroom Approaches to Social Skills Development 5. Capitalizing on the Power of Peers 6. Assessment of Individual Skills and Progress, with Jennifer L. Schroeder7. Developing and Implementing Individual Intervention Plans