Standardized Assessment of Social Skills in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Social skills are innate across species. As mammals, we are social creatures and our survival depends on our abilities to socially navigate the many facets of our immediate surroundings and the world at large. Kanner contrasted this marked innate predisposition of typical individuals to engage in reciprocal interactions to that of a group of 11 individuals whom he said innately lacked social interest (autism). In his original description of autism, he proposed that autism was a congenital disorder characterized by profound social deficits. The purpose of this chapter is to review the scales that are currently in use for measuring social skills in individuals with ASD. A variety of diagnostic screening scales which involve some measurement of social skill deficits are available. These include general behavior rating measures with an added autism rating scale, autism specific screening scales for early diagnosis and general screening, diagnostic evaluation scales, and adaptive behavior measures. There are only two standardized measures of social skills, the Social Skills Improvement System (SSiS) and the Social Responsiveness Scale, Second Edition (SRS-2), which attempt to identify social competencies and deficits, which may lead to evaluation and treatment planning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)