Parents and professionals often ask how to teach social skills and how to design social skills programs for children with ASD. Often they are seeking answers to basic questions such as “where do we start” and “what strategies do we use?” This book addresses the need for social programming for children and adolescents with ASD by providing a comprehensive five-step model. The model incorporates the following five steps: assess social functioning, distinguish between skill acquisition and performance deficits, select intervention strategies, implement intervention, and evaluate and monitor progress.

This model will also show you how to organize and make sense of the myriad of social skills strategies and resources currently available to parents and professionals – it is not meant to replace other resources or strategies, but synthesize them into one comprehensive program.