Promoting Social Success

Improving the adaptation of students with disabilities in inclusive classroom settings

Context

The fundamental shift toward inclusion in our schools and in the larger society has been transforming the social and academic experiences of children with disabilities. Along with unprecedented opportunities, the newly mandated policies aimed at ensuring universal access to the general educatio ncurriculum pose considerable and perhaps unprecedented social challenges for children with mental retardation. As children with metnal retardation become full-fledged members of the general education classroom and school community, these children are expected to interact flexibly and adaptively with more cognitively advanced peers.

The Project

CSDE initiated the Promoting Social Success project in order to equip children with mental retardation to meet today’s social challenges by providing teachers with an instructional program, specifically designed for this population of students, that reflects a social-cognitive theoretical approach. By designing an instructional program in accordance with recent theories and research findings in social cognition, we best equip students with mental retardation to meet the main social challenge of the classroom—the challenge of “social adaptation" (the capacity to continually adjust one’s behavior to fit varied and ever-changing social circumstances).

Results

Results of the evaluation of the impact of the PSS intervention provide evidence that a social-cognitive approach to social skills instruction can be effective in improving the social behavior of students with cognitive limitations. Overall, 64% of the students who participated in the intervention showed improvements in social behavior, either in teacher ratings of their social skills or in observed social behavior.

This research led to the publication of Promoting Social Success: A Social Skills Curriculum for Students with Special Needs (Brookes 2003).