Literature-Based Social Skills Instruction: A Strategy for Students With Learning Disabilities

Abstract

Social skill deficits and learning disabilities often coexist. Academic work is negatively impacted by students’ lack of social skills. Remediation of these deficits in pull-out programs has not generally resulted in transfer to real-world settings. Embedding social skills instruction within literature during a read-aloud session taught in the general education setting takes advantage of the literature context and the naturally occurring classroom community to assist students in improvement. The strategy is explained, detailed instructions for implementation are outlined, and potential benefits for educators are described.