Assessment of Children's Social Skills: Recent Developments,Best Practices,and New Directions |
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| Authors: | Kenneth W Merrell |
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| Abstract: | This article provides an overview of some of the recent developments in assessing social skills of children and youth, as well as a discussion of "best practices" in conducting assessment and linking assessment to effective intervention. Naturalistic behavioral observation and behavior rating scales are proposed as the 2 assessment methods that should be considered primary or "first-line" choices for social skills assessment. A review of some specific tools that have been developed within these 2 assessment methods is provided. Interviewing and sociometric techniques, although not necessarily primary methods of assessment for children's social skills, sometimes may be an important part of an assessment design, or "second-line" choices. Projective-expressive techniques or objective self-report instruments for assessing children's social skills sometimes may help illuminate the overall assessment results but should never be used as primary assessment methods for social skills; thus, these methods are considered "third-line" methods for this purpose. Six best-practices recommendations, all of which are supported by previous empirical research, are offered for improving social skills assessment efforts. Finally, conclusions are drawn regarding the current state of the art in social skills assessment, as well as implications for future directions in this area. Clearly, the challenge facing researchers and practitioners who are concerned with this area will be to make assessment "functional" and link it to intervention more effectively. |
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