Episode Details

You’ve been told that social skills interventions are ableist.

But you’ve also been told that we need to prepare students for real-world expectations. You have teachers and administrators coming to you with concerns about behavior, participation, and social interaction, and you’re expected to address it.

Then you’re told to make your intervention more “functional.” To collaborate more. To focus on generalization.

And somehow, all of that responsibility gets funneled into a 20-minute social skills group.

What are you supposed to do when you know that a short, isolated session isn’t going to result in meaningful carryover?

The issue isn’t that social skills intervention is a bad idea. The problem is we're using the wrong model to support them. 

When we think of "social skills intervention" as beginning and ending within a siloed therapy session, we'll continue to see poor skill transfer.

A therapy session with students is ONE layer. We can keep that layer, but we need to add more layers to it to bridge the gap.

In this video, I walk through how to shift from relying on one intervention bucket (a.k.a. the isolated social skills group) to building a service delivery model that frames social skills as "executive functioning for human interactions".

This episode was created based on a video I previously published on YouTube. You can view the original video here: https://youtu.be/vdpzfG5l6wo

In this episode, I mentioned School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers design scalable executive functioning interventions to ensure students get the scaffolding they need across the school day. 

You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks and IXL:

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.