Since the 1970s, social skills instruction (SSI; also called social skills training or structured learning) has gained wide acceptance as a viable strategy for addressing the needs of individuals with maladaptive behaviors. This approach, used with both children and adults in a variety of therapeutic and school settings, views the student or client in educational terms rather than as a person in need of therapy. Students are viewed as deficient or, at best, weak in the skills necessary for effective and satisfying daily living. The task of the skills trainer, therapist, or teacher is the active and deliberate teaching of desirable prosocial skills.

SSI is based on social learning theory, which emphasizes modeling, behavioral rehearsal, and social reinforcement processes ...