Using Social Scripts to Teach Social Behaviors

Social skills are an integral component of any curriculum when teaching secondary students with autism. Teaching social skills should be embedded within natural routines for the teaching to be most effective.  However, many students require pre-teaching, outside the context of the routine, for initial skill acquisition. Social Scripts are an effective way we can provide pre-teaching. Click below to download the Social Scripts Lesson Plan and an example Social Script.

Simple social scripts contain the following three key elements:

•      A brief description of the problem (e.g., Johnny has the iPad game on too loud)
•   A simple expectation of what we want the student to do

•   A short script written in the students' perspective (e.g., I walk over to Johnny ask to talk to him, state my concern). For a more detailed task analysis for conflict resolution, please see the Resolving Conflicts with Peers Observed Routine Assessment (ORA).