Are you Trying to Decide if a Child with ADHD you know has Social Skills Problems?

Perhaps some examples of social skills deficits/problems might be helpful. Read and see if the child in question in your classroom or home exhibits any of these behaviors.

 

Among some examples of social skills deficits are the following, accompanied by the specific behaviors characterizing these deficits below, so please keep reading:

 

✱ Deficits in social perception and social cognition that inhibit students’ abilities to interact with others

✱ Lack of consequential thinking

✱ Difficulty expressing feelings

✱ Difficulty in feeling empathy for others

✱ Difficulty delaying gratification (impulsive)

✱ Inappropriate grooming and hygiene

✱ Failure to understand and fulfill the role of listener

✱ Inability to take the perspective of another

✱ Less time spent looking and smiling at a conversational partner

✱ Unwilling to act in a social situation to influence the outcome

✱ Less likely to request clarification when given ambiguous or incomplete information

✱ Tendency to talk more or less

✱ More likely to approach teacher and ask inappropriate questions

✱ Less proficient in interpersonal problem solving. (Vaughn, Bos, & Schumm, 2007, p. 255)

 

Before you check to see if the children in question have social skills deficits, let me give you some specific behaviors that may occur if a child has these deficits:

 

✱ Difficulties in social perception: A child walks up to two children who are disagreeing and asks “Can I play?” Even though the child clearly sees the ongoing argument between the two children, he seemingly is unaware that they may be so involved with disagreeing that they may not consider including him at that moment. Additionally, they may become annoyed with him if he intercedes.

 

✱ Lack of consequential thinking: A child walks up to another and pulls the chair out from under him. The child who pulled the chair out does not realize that the child who was sitting on the chair will fall down on the floor, possibly hurting himself.

 

✱ Difficulty expressing feelings: A child pushes another one down and cannot say he was sorry.

 

✱ Difficulty delaying gratification: A child walks up to another who is using a shovel at a sand table. Instead of asking to use the shovel, he grabs it and knocks the child down. The child did not have the patience to wait until the other child finished with the shovel. Instead, he acted on impulse.

 

✱ Inappropriate grooming and hygiene: A child arrives at school with dirty hands wearing the same soiled clothes he wore the day before. He may not pay attention to how others view his physical appearance.

 

✱ Failure to understand and fulfill the role of listener: In conversations

with peers or adults, the child talks incessantly and continuously interrupts. He does not understand that when one person talks the other person listens.

✱ Inability to take the perspective of another: One child is upset because the other children did not permit him to play. The child with ADHD does not understand why that child is upset.

✱ Less time spent looking and smiling at a conversational partner: As a child is playing with another, the child with ADHD does not look or smile frequently at the other.

✱ Unwilling to act in a social situation to influence the outcome:

A child is playing by himself on the playground while watching the others play together. He is unwilling to go over to those children to ask them to play.

 

✱ Less likely to request clarification when given ambiguous or incomplete information: A teacher hands out permission slips and tells the children to return them to school signed by their parents. She does not tell the children when they

have to return it. The child with social skills deficits does not ask the teacher when to return the permission slip and, typically, forgets to hand it in to the teacher.

 

✱ Tendency to talk more or less: A child either talks too little or excessively to peers and adults.

 

✱ More likely to approach teacher and ask inappropriate questions: A teacher gives instructions on speaking out in class. She instructs the children to raise their hands when they have something important to ask her or to tell to the class.

The child with ADHD raises his hand and asks “Can we stand up in our seats and shout out our questions?”

 

✱ Less proficient in interpersonal problem solving: A child feels rejected by another child. He has not actually been rejected but does not understand how to go about trying to be friends. (Vaughn et al., 2007, p. 255)