Social Competence Intervention Program

Fig. 8.1

A model for social perception

To evaluate a social situation, a great deal of information needs to be processed simultaneously in a dynamic and ever-changing context. One way to simplify the perceptual field is to select the most important aspect of the situation and respond accordingly. This selection is an important aspect, as keying in on a less important aspect or perceiving it incorrectly often leads to difficulties in relating to others (Guli et al., in press). Moreover, a child’s past memory of his or her previous experiences and what worked or didn’t work is a crucial information for the selection of what behavior to employ in the present situation. There are emotional and physiological aspects to this memory with children who have experienced significant difficulties related to others having biological and emotional reactions to situations that are similar (Damasio 1994). These emotional and physiological components, in turn, influence how the child or adolescent responds to the current scenario. Thus, the child’s past social learning experiences come into play in his or her interpretation of the current event and color his or her resulting reactions (Semrud-Clikeman 2007).

Another aspect important to consider is whether the developmental level of the child matches the expectations of parents, peers, and teachers. Generally, this level is commensurate with the child’s age; however, when not commensurate, the child is frequently socially rejected, seen as “odd,” and isolated from peers. This isolation further restricts the child’s ability to relate to others and to develop appropriate skills. Without the development of appropriate skills, the child will often flounder socially and have much fewer opportunities to practice social interactions.

Perspective taking and theory of mind are important contributions to social competence. The ability to understand another person’s perspective has been implicated in autism as well as related disorders (Ozonoff and Rogers 2003). When there is limited self-awareness and other-awareness, difficulties with social interactions are likely and limit the child’s ability to share thoughts and feelings with others (Happe and Frith 2006). This difficulty in establishing the understanding of differing perspectives for different people has been found related to problems with conversational ability and poor social functioning in children with autism. It is highly likely that difficulty with language skills impairs social communication (Barrett et al. 2004). This is a dynamic skill that children develop. When a child is taught directly to look at another’s motives and feelings, the child is able to complete this task within a defined setting. However, the ability to translate this knowledge into less structured and dynamic settings does not occur readily and likely relates back to the difficulty experienced with flexibility and social information processing present in many children with social competence disorders (Corbett 2003).

Recently, various social competence programs have been developed for higher functioning children with autistic spectrum disorders that have an emphasis on assisting the child in developing an understanding of emotions and body language through the use of creative drama. Creative drama is an effective medium to use for this type of program, as drama activities originated as a means for actors to become skilled in reading each others’ nonverbal cues for the stage. Thus, this process directly addresses the difficulties experienced by individuals on the autism spectrum (Lerner et al. 2010). Drama is grounded in a belief in discovery-in-this-moment and has a great potential for helping children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by teaching them to better understand interactions with others (Sherratt and Peter 2002) and solve social disagreements in context (Guli et al. 2008).

Program Description

The SCIP was developed by Laura Guli as part of a dissertation emphasizing creative drama as a basis for teaching social perspective as well as developing social skills. SCIP is a 16-session intervention based on creative drama and process drama activities. The activities have been modified for children with autistic spectrum disorders as well as those with nonverbal learning disabilities. Some of the content consisting of cooperative drama activities was modified and derived from existing sources (Cresi 1989; Neelands and Goode 2001; O’Neill and Lambert 1994; Spolin 1986), whereas the original process dramas were created specifically for the program. A major goal of the SCIP program is to teach children the fundamental skills of social perception in such a way as to provide practice in foundational skills using a framework that includes cooperative play and allows many opportunities for practice.

The program consists of three stages that were developed to parallel the steps theorized to be involved in social competence: input, integration, and output. See Fig. 8.2 (Guli et al. 2008).

Fig. 8.2

SCIP model of social competence

Modules

There are 16 manualized modules incorporated in SCIP. Sessions 1–7 target input and focus on the following:

Establishing the group and learning about the leaders and the children participating.

Teaching knowledge about emotions; what makes up the emotions, how they are expressed, and how to understand the emotions.

Learning how to focus attention appropriately.

Learning how to understand and interpret facial expressions and body language.

Learning how to understand and interpret vocal cues.

Learning how to put together facial expressions, body language, and vocal cues in a social interaction.

Learning how to handle situations where nonverbal cues do not match the words being said.

Sessions 8–13 target the integration and interpretation processes. These sessions include the following modules:

Perspective taking

Interpretation of nonverbal body language, facial expressions, and gestures.

Introduction and use of process dramas involving role playing. During this time, participants are assisted in breaking down complex social interactions into sequential parts and to discuss the emotions present.

Exploring various outcomes that can occur during a social interaction as well as how to determine the most appropriate behaviors.

Finally, sessions 14–16 address output and focus on techniques that can be used to resolve conflict as well as how to respond to teasing. The organization of the activities moves from an initial emphasis on the child’s experience and emotions surrounding social interaction to an understanding of how others may interpret the same situation in an alternative manner. Target emotions progress from general emotions (happy, sad, and angry) to subtler emotions (shame, embarrassment, and annoyance).

Each session includes a warm-up activity, followed by a review of home assignment, discussion of the topic of the day and activities along that line, and then a wrap-up discussion of the day’s experience. Peer feedback is the key throughout the sessions as well as leader guidance. If conflicts arise, each participant’s needs are addressed and resolved. This intervention has a manual, which is necessary when working with children; the format is flexible and may need to be changed as required by individual children (Table 8.1).

Table 8.1

Outline of the SCIP

Session no.	Social perception stage	Topic
1	Input	Establishing group identity
2	Input	Focusing attention
3	Input	Emotional knowledge
4	Input	Facial expressions and body language
5	Input	Facial expressions and body language
6	Input	Vocal cues
7	Input	Putting cues together
8	Integration	When cues do not match
9	Integration	When cues do not match (part 2)
10	Integration	Point of view
11	Integration	Understanding interactions
12	Integration	Understanding interactions (part 2)
13	Output	Becoming fluent in conversation
14	Output	Dealing with teasing
15	Output	Content review
16	Output	Goodbye and closure

Behavior Management and Manual Flexibility

Working with children with autism and social competence problems is rewarding as well as challenging. As discussed in other chapters in this volume, behavioral management is an important part of working with any child in a group. As the program is fun, it is not unusual for children to become too active or loud during activities. Some of the “rowdiness” is to be welcomed, as it reflects the fact that children are making friends with each other. Also, while flexibility may not be one of the strengths of the children in these groups, it is essential for the leaders of the group to be able to put the individual child’s needs on a particular day ahead of the manual. This program is not meant to be a cookbook intervention that is to be followed rigidly. Rather, it is meant to work with the creativity of the leaders and the children to provide the best of all worlds; structure and flexibility. With this in mind, peer conflicts and individual difficulties should be used as therapeutic opportunities to teach participants about problem solving and help them recognize their role in a social interaction. For example, in the initial groups of SCIP, one child accidentally mispronounced “fork” and it sounded like a bad word. When the other children laughed in response, he was mortified, and began to cry. A group leader took him out of the room briefly to give him some privacy, to help him process his feelings, and to reassure him that he could successfully return to the group. At the same time, other group leaders worked with the remaining children regarding sensitivity to others’ feelings and how to respond to the child who was upset.

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