Using Social Skills Training for Children with Disabilities

Social skills training was found to have no discernible effects on cognition and positive effects on social-emotional development and behavior for children with disabilities in early education settings.


Social skills training is not a specific curriculum, but rather a collection of practices that utilize a behavioral approach to teaching preschool children age-appropriate social skills and competencies, including communication, problem solving, decision making, self-management, and peer relations. Social skills training can occur in both regular and special education classrooms.

A variety of social skills training approaches and curricula are available. For example, teachers may use a structured approach to explain to students how to enact a desired behavior by providing examples and reinforcing targeted behaviors through questions, answers, and other feedback. An example of a more nuanced approach (often referred to as “incidental teaching”) is when teachers respond to student-generated utterances, interactions, and behavior to encourage the desired social skills (such as rewarding positive play).

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