Agenda: Day 1 (General Session)
Building Social Relationships: A Systematic Approach to Teaching Social Interaction Skills to Children and Adolescents on the Autism Spectrum
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Scott Bellini is the Director of Research and Clinical Services at the Indiana Resource Center for Autism (IRCA) and a faculty member in the School Psychology program at Indiana University, Bloomington. He is also the Director of the Social Skills Research Center (SSRC), a university based center specializing in developing and empirically examining the outcomes of social skill interventions for youth with ASD. He is a licensed psychologist in the state of Indiana and an endorsed Health Services Provider in Psychology. He is currently conducting research on professional development outcomes for educators, anxiety disorders, and social skill interventions, including video modeling for youth with ASD. He has published numerous research manuscripts and has provided consultation and training to families and professionals in over 30 states on the topic of social skills programming for students with ASD. He is the author of the book, Building Social Relationships, which was named the 2007 Literary Work of the Year by the Autism Society of America.
Brief Workshop Description:
The workshop will provide an overview of a social skill instructional model developed by Dr. Bellini. The workshop integrates research on social-emotional functioning with effective strategies for teaching social skills to children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The five-step model provides a systematic and comprehensive framework to guide parents and practitioners in the development and implementation of social skills programming.
Learning Objectives for Participants
- Increase knowledge of social and emotional functioning
- Increase awareness of the relationship between social skill deficits and social anxiety
- Develop skills necessary to assess social functioning
- Increase awareness of skill acquisition versus performance deficits
- Increase awareness of available social skill strategies
- Develop skills necessary to implement social skills strategies
