Teaching assertive and commendatory social skills to an interpersonally‐deficient retarded adolescent

Abstract

A 16‐year‐old mildly retarded adolescent was referred for treatment of interpersonal skills deficits, which involved her inability to handle peers’ derogatory comments and her inability to respond to other peers’ friendly, positive approaches. A behavioral social skills training procedure, consisting of self‐observation, coaching and behavior rehearsal, was used to teach both refusal assertive skills and commendatory prosocial behavior during role‐plays of situations which had been troublesome for her. A multiple baseline single subject design across behavioral components was used to evaluate the effectiveness of training. Improvement of specific social skills was evident in videotaped role‐plays with a male partner when training was introduced; generalization to untrained scenes with a female partner was partially obtained and school reports provided additional evidence of interpersonal enhancement. The utility of behavioral skill training approaches for remediating the social deficits of retarded persons is discussed.