Social skills are very important to have in life, but children with special needs often need more help with their development. This is why social skills training were created and continued to be studied. Social skills training can be quite effective if taught properly and if all the conditions have been met. Frank Gresham, George Sugai and Robert Horner have concluded that training of this sort must be individualized for the patient. Studies where the training was individualized showed a much higher rate of success than those where a standard course material was followed. When evaluating social skill, Dr.'s look at three main elements, cognitive, behavioural, and environmental factors.


Preschoolers choose friends based on whom they see regularly. They do not recognize that others think differently than they do as the mind does not develop this ability until later in development. This age of child has difficulty characterizing whether the actions of others are accidental or intentional. This leads to one of major contributing factors in special needs having the most difficulty with keeping friendships. To help children create and keep friends it is important that teachers or parental figures demonstrate positive interaction with all children. This means one does not discriminate against any child and works extra hard to include them in all aspects in the classroom i.e. Circle time, creative time, free play time and outdoor time. Although a child may have a special need it should not be pointed out to others in the group as this will often bring nothing more than negative attention.

An excellent practice is to try and find similarities to help children understand that everyone is different. Parallel play is most common for children with special needs. They believe that they are different then other children and don't have anything in common. To make the children feel comfortable have all the children interact together doing something they all like doing, thus helping to create a bond. For example when speaking with Jenny about playing a specific board game it is helpful to let her know that Johnny also likes this game and he is fun to play with.


Remember, focus on the positive things that children do and always look for similarities as apposed to differences. Also, remember that every child is not the same and that works with one will not always hold true with another. Socializing a child can have a major impact on the future development of a child and thus the earlier one recognizes that the child is having problems means the earlier steps can be taken to correct the problem.