Overview

This week our class will focus on social skills and peer-mediated interventions.

Social skills are critical skills for students with intensive support needs to learn. Being proficient in social skills helps students to access a variety of environments, and is associated with many positive school and post-school outcomes. There are a variety of evidence-based practices that can be used to provide social skills instruction, many of which we have already reviewed in this course.

Peer-mediated interventions are used to teach typically developing peers how to interact with and help students with disabilities acquire new skills by increasing opportunities to interact with peers within natural environments. Two peer-mediated interventions with support from the research include peer support arrangements and peer networks. Peer support arrangements involve one or more peers providing academic, social, and other supports to their classmates with intensive support needs within the classroom. A peer network involves establishing a group of peers who meet in both school and community social situations with a student with intensive support needs in order to develop meaningful and lasting social relationships. Peer networks initially provide a structured environment for students with and without disabilities to meet and interact during fun social activities at school, with the hope that the relationship will naturally extend beyond the school day.

Objectives

In this module, our activities, content, and assignments will help you do the following:

Define the term social skills instruction/social skills training
Analyze social skills scenarios to determine (a) skills to target and (b) methods of social skills instruction that best fits the needs of the student and their environment
Define the terms peer-mediated interventions, peer support arrangements, and peer networks
Describe the steps for implementing peer support arrangements and peer networks
Explain the benefits of peer-mediated interventions for both students with disabilities and their peers

To-Do List

Here's everything you need to do and remember for this module:

Read assigned readings for the week
Turn in Practitioner Paper Draft 2
Take weekly quiz