SOCIAL SKILLS RATING

Social Skills Rating System

Table of Contents

Introduction1

Description of the test and its history1

Psychometric qualities of the test2

Uses of the test5

A critique of the test6

Purpose, benefits/usefulness, challenges, and how results would be used7

Conclusion8

References9

Social Skills Rating System

Introduction

The Social Skills Rating System (SSRS) is a broad concept of multi rater assessment of student's social behaviors that can affect peer acceptance, teacher-student relation, and academic performance. The SSRS highlights the perceived frequency, and significance of behaviors influencing a student's improvement of social competence and adaptive operation at home and school. The Social Skills Rating System components include three behavior rating forms (parent, student, and teacher versions), and an assessment and intervention planning record. Parent and teacher forms are available for three developmental levels: school, Grades through 6, and Grade 7 through 12 (Gresham, Elliott, 1990). The Social Skills Rating System assesses the domain of social skills, academic competence, and problem behavior.

Description of the test and its history

A student's ability to successfully manage his or her relationships with peers and teachers associate with many positive outcomes such as teacher acceptance, academic achievement, peer acceptance, positive peer relationships, and friendships. However, when students lack the necessary skills to navigate these relationships, they experience negative outcomes such as teacher rejection, school failure, social rejection, and limited social involvement. Thus, the degree to which children achieve social competence will influence their educational experience.

Interventions aimed at improving social competence necessarily begin by evaluating and then improving social skills. When one evaluates and classifies social skills deficits, it is also important to distinguish between skill deficits, performance deficits, fluency deficits, and competing problem behaviors.

A skill deficit refers to behavior that is not a part of the student's behavioral repertoire. Given that the student does not know how to perform the target skill, no amount of M&M's will encourage the student to perform the skill. Instead, the skill needs to be taught just like a learned skill would be taught-with explicit instruction that includes modeling, coaching, and behavioral rehearsal. In contrast, a performance deficit occurs when a student is familiar with a given skill (e.g., follows directions the first time) but does not always choose to perform the skill. Intervention efforts addressing performance deficits need to focus on motivation or reinforcement to increase the frequency with which a skill demonstrates.

Although a massive number of social skills problems pertain to performance or fluency deficits, the attention be directed to identifying, feasible methods for addressing acquisition deficits. It is particularly important to remediate acquisition deficits as early as possible during the early elementary years, given that students who fail to develop pro social behaviors before the age of 8 become increasingly more resistant to intervention efforts over time (Walker, McConnell, 1988).

Psychometric qualities of the test

The psychometric qualities of the test include six steps which make it reliable and increase its validity (Harter, 1985). The psychometric qualities of the test can easily be understood by elaborating six steps. This will clearly depict the picture of qualities. The six steps include (a) identifying students for participation, (b) identifying skill deficits and designing the intervention program, (c) organizing intervention groups, ...