Social skills are behaviors that let people interact effectively and harmoniously with others.

In our society today, education is mostly a social process that involves interacting and collaborating with teachers and peers in learning the knowledge and skills one needs to survive in society.

Research shows a connection between social interaction and academic achievement (Mann & McKeithan, 2024), hence, the importance of social skills training to the field of special education. Specifically for autistic learners who exhibit social disconnection through low social motivation or understanding, teaching them social skills might be essential to help them independently function in society.

According to the learning theory of behaviorism, all behavior can be learned, hence, so can social skills. Neurotypical children are believed to learn these skills through imitation, trial and error and reinforcement. But autistic children are known to not learn typical social behaviors through these natural means. Hence, the need to teach them these skills (Mann & McKeithan, 2024)

Several evidence-based practices have been identified by NCAEP (Steinbrenner et al., 2020) as promoting social skills acquisition and performance. These include:

• Naturalistic intervention

• Parent implemented intervention

• Peer - mediated instruction and intervention

• Pivotal Response Training

• Prompting

• Reinforcement

• Social Narratives

• Scripting

• Social Skills Training

• Structured Play Groups

• Video Modelling