Social Skills Deficits

Social skills are verbal and nonverbal behaviors that allow an individual to fit within a social group. Appropriate use of social skills allows interactions with others to be mutually reinforcing, such that social interaction is more likely to occur in the future. Although skills such as reading and writing are extremely important to an individual’s developmental trajectory, it is one’s social skills that determine whether an individual is perceived as normal or typical. Poor social skills represent a core deficit of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and limit the ability of these individuals to successfully interact with peers. Additionally, poor social skills often affect development in other areas, such as language and emotional regulation. For this reason, social skills are often considered a primary ...