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Incorporating Social Goals in the Classroom: A Guide for Teachers and Parents of Children with High-Functioning Autism and Asperger Syndrome
This book provides practical, hands-on strategies to teach social skills to children with high-functioning autism and Asperger Syndrome. It includes a detailed description of the social deficits of these children as they appear in the classroom - difficulties with such things as understanding idioms, taking turns in conversation, understanding and using tone of voice and body language - and ways to address them. Instruction is included in the book to enhance the development of appropriate, measurable, and meaningful individualized education plans (IEPs) to incorporate social goals. Lesson plans are included to facilitate the ability to 'teach' these social goals. Parents will find this text an excellent training tool to help develop social education curriculums for their children, and teachers will find it particularly helpful as an easy-to-read manual containing many 'nuts and bolts' strategies to utilize in the classroom.
188 pages, Paperback
First published March 15, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 11, 2025
The first hundred pages of this book discuss terminology and frame the need for social goals. The remaining (less than 100 pages) offer some concrete suggestions to promote social goals.
My difficulty in seeking support for my child is that we are not being educated in the US, so I don't have the legal right 'FAPE' or an IEP as is assumed in many books on this topic. Two concrete ideas: Gray's Social Stories books and conversation starter cards might be useful to my student if I buy them myself.
My overarching problem is that Catalan schools default to transactional goal setting to address problematic behavior and attitudes, which in itself undermines social learning. (Behavior is performed/avoided for a reward/consequence. If the reward/consequence is withdrawn, the motivation is withdrawn. Teachers who do not understand this mis-calibrate their classroom economies or create problems down the road when inappropriate behavior is simply unacceptable and not something your student will be coaxed and rewarded to do.)
Here are some examples (a la the first 100 pages) of issues I encountered in public education in Barcelona.
Half-day daycare 10mo-19mo old - because I picked my twins up for lunch they were taught that the school lunch food on the cart was not for them. When at an older age they did stay for lunch, my autistic child would not eat school lunch food. They'd taught him not to.
Approx. 2yo - daycare carer spoke Latin Spanish natively, not my child's home languages Catalan and English. She didn't recognize his proto words or respond to them meaningfully. He stopped talking to her. This was identified as 'selective mutism' but no one had ideas of solutions for us.(Examples: he said 'bata' when struggling with his shoes ('sabates' in Catalan). She would get his bata (smock) and not help him with his shoes or saying the whole word for shoes he was trying to use. When observing tip toe walking, rather than recognizing this as a maladaptive trait to be worked on, she provided high heeled shoes so he could 'pretend to walk like Mommy' (even though Mommy never wears high heels and recognized his need for correction/orthotics).
Approx. 3yo (preschool starts much earlier in Spain than in the US)- Curriculum taught writing before most children were able to hold pencils correctly. Autistic (and left-handed child) was criticized for what were obvious (to parent) motor skills deficits. Instead of making shapes, drawing and improving the muscle and coordination needed to write he learned to hate and avoid writing. Teachers decided that it was PDA (pathological demand avoidance) without a diagnosis, not inappropriate demand/lack of positive reinforcement.
Approx. 4yo (Mom took language classes during kids' school hours so kids had to stay for lunch) - refused all hot lunch for an entire year (same as age 2). School's method involved so much pressure (and collective punishments like missed recess time, loss of 'games' designed to make kids finish food) that child began to vomit. Missed lots of school because the school insisted on interpreting these as 'flu' symptoms; They were actually the beginning of ARFID (avoidant restrictive food intake disorder behaviors). I have literally one note home where someone considered it success because they fed him vanilla pudding instead and he napped for 30 minutes. [He's eleven now and I've had to bring him home for lunch hours (allowed in Spain) because he can't stand the food, the volume, the pressure, the under-supervised playground hours.]
Approx. 5yo - New (male) teacher used a system of points to have students compete for an individual high score at the end of the day. Instead of social education when the teacher was displeased he would announce 'minus ten!' without explaining the problem to the student. Every day ended with one winner and everyone else having 'lost'. PE was overwhelming and basically intolerable so he was pulled out to be the 'referee.' Massive reinforcement of problem behavior of trying to enforce rule following for other children. [Mixed blessing of Covid year - school closed and we were under martial law but my life was easier and better with my kids. We caught up on years of missed social and skill training!]
Approx 6yo - new teacher complained about how competitive my student is and will not entertain the possibility that age 5 method contributed significantly to the problem. No autism diagnosis (some schools will not suggest it because it would obligate the school district to pay for testing/diagnosis) but teachers are still acting on the assumption of PDA and demanding no performance. At year's-end they say, "We can't teach your child" so I take him to a new school...
This book has a copyright nearly 25 years old at the time I am reading it. Although I understand the distinction the author is making between use or non-use of the term autistic for getting educational support, I do think that 'high-functioning' has been and continues to be a problematic way of describing people's support needs. Although some people may be reassured by the use of 'Asperger Syndrome' as a shorthand for lower support needs, the fact remains that Asperger was basically a Nazi and many people do not want to tie their identity to him. Of course it's more complicated than that, but his ideas tie us to the eugenics of the 1940s.
To authors of these kinds of books: I posit that parents are very aware of the examples given in the first hundred pages (so maybe they're for teachers) but the advocacy for support needs much more fleshing out. The examples focused on eye-contact related goals aren't great ones. Comprehensive education on pragmatic language would be very helpful. It would also be helpful to have more tools for the emotional side of being a kid and in school with autism. When my child says, 'Masking is too hard and not worth it.' I don't have a ready answer for him because I feel the same way!
My difficulty in seeking support for my child is that we are not being educated in the US, so I don't have the legal right 'FAPE' or an IEP as is assumed in many books on this topic. Two concrete ideas: Gray's Social Stories books and conversation starter cards might be useful to my student if I buy them myself.
My overarching problem is that Catalan schools default to transactional goal setting to address problematic behavior and attitudes, which in itself undermines social learning. (Behavior is performed/avoided for a reward/consequence. If the reward/consequence is withdrawn, the motivation is withdrawn. Teachers who do not understand this mis-calibrate their classroom economies or create problems down the road when inappropriate behavior is simply unacceptable and not something your student will be coaxed and rewarded to do.)
Here are some examples (a la the first 100 pages) of issues I encountered in public education in Barcelona.
Half-day daycare 10mo-19mo old - because I picked my twins up for lunch they were taught that the school lunch food on the cart was not for them. When at an older age they did stay for lunch, my autistic child would not eat school lunch food. They'd taught him not to.
Approx. 2yo - daycare carer spoke Latin Spanish natively, not my child's home languages Catalan and English. She didn't recognize his proto words or respond to them meaningfully. He stopped talking to her. This was identified as 'selective mutism' but no one had ideas of solutions for us.(Examples: he said 'bata' when struggling with his shoes ('sabates' in Catalan). She would get his bata (smock) and not help him with his shoes or saying the whole word for shoes he was trying to use. When observing tip toe walking, rather than recognizing this as a maladaptive trait to be worked on, she provided high heeled shoes so he could 'pretend to walk like Mommy' (even though Mommy never wears high heels and recognized his need for correction/orthotics).
Approx. 3yo (preschool starts much earlier in Spain than in the US)- Curriculum taught writing before most children were able to hold pencils correctly. Autistic (and left-handed child) was criticized for what were obvious (to parent) motor skills deficits. Instead of making shapes, drawing and improving the muscle and coordination needed to write he learned to hate and avoid writing. Teachers decided that it was PDA (pathological demand avoidance) without a diagnosis, not inappropriate demand/lack of positive reinforcement.
Approx. 4yo (Mom took language classes during kids' school hours so kids had to stay for lunch) - refused all hot lunch for an entire year (same as age 2). School's method involved so much pressure (and collective punishments like missed recess time, loss of 'games' designed to make kids finish food) that child began to vomit. Missed lots of school because the school insisted on interpreting these as 'flu' symptoms; They were actually the beginning of ARFID (avoidant restrictive food intake disorder behaviors). I have literally one note home where someone considered it success because they fed him vanilla pudding instead and he napped for 30 minutes. [He's eleven now and I've had to bring him home for lunch hours (allowed in Spain) because he can't stand the food, the volume, the pressure, the under-supervised playground hours.]
Approx. 5yo - New (male) teacher used a system of points to have students compete for an individual high score at the end of the day. Instead of social education when the teacher was displeased he would announce 'minus ten!' without explaining the problem to the student. Every day ended with one winner and everyone else having 'lost'. PE was overwhelming and basically intolerable so he was pulled out to be the 'referee.' Massive reinforcement of problem behavior of trying to enforce rule following for other children. [Mixed blessing of Covid year - school closed and we were under martial law but my life was easier and better with my kids. We caught up on years of missed social and skill training!]
Approx 6yo - new teacher complained about how competitive my student is and will not entertain the possibility that age 5 method contributed significantly to the problem. No autism diagnosis (some schools will not suggest it because it would obligate the school district to pay for testing/diagnosis) but teachers are still acting on the assumption of PDA and demanding no performance. At year's-end they say, "We can't teach your child" so I take him to a new school...
This book has a copyright nearly 25 years old at the time I am reading it. Although I understand the distinction the author is making between use or non-use of the term autistic for getting educational support, I do think that 'high-functioning' has been and continues to be a problematic way of describing people's support needs. Although some people may be reassured by the use of 'Asperger Syndrome' as a shorthand for lower support needs, the fact remains that Asperger was basically a Nazi and many people do not want to tie their identity to him. Of course it's more complicated than that, but his ideas tie us to the eugenics of the 1940s.
To authors of these kinds of books: I posit that parents are very aware of the examples given in the first hundred pages (so maybe they're for teachers) but the advocacy for support needs much more fleshing out. The examples focused on eye-contact related goals aren't great ones. Comprehensive education on pragmatic language would be very helpful. It would also be helpful to have more tools for the emotional side of being a kid and in school with autism. When my child says, 'Masking is too hard and not worth it.' I don't have a ready answer for him because I feel the same way!
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April 3, 2010I think this book will be really intrestingg. I'm still not finish yet reading it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 6, 2011
as a teacher-very helpful.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews