SOS is a standardized, developmentally ordered social skills curriculum that empowers school staff, through monthly training and supervision to address the needs of children and adolescents with ASD. The school environment is the ideal setting in which to implement this intervention because that is where kids have most contact with their peers.
The overarching goal of the SOS program is to develop appropriate social skills in high-functioning, verbal children with ASD. A secondary goal is to foster, in typically developing children, an understanding of individual differences, a broader tolerance, a stronger sense of fairness and increased social initiations toward children with differences in regular school settings.
The SOS program is comprised of four coordinated components:
- Social skills group sessions. School staff are trained to deliver social skills instruction to students with ASD, that focuses on:
- emotional and behavioral modulation;
- social rules;
- understanding of topic in conversation, play, and social situations;
- cognitive flexibility (reduction of preoccupations and perseverative behaviors & improved transitioning);
- development of insight.
- Social skills lessons in the mainstream classroom. Teachers are trained in the delivery of character education lessons that teach typically developing peers to support the integration of students with ASD into larger social settings. This reinforces performance and fluency of social skills.
- Peer mentoring. Teachers learn to train same-age mentors to support conversation and play in unstructured school environments, such as during lunch and recess.
- Parental involvement. Parents are taught to reinforce the new skills or “rules” with homework outlined in the curriculum manual.