Taking data on social skills can be difficult because many social skills are complex and involve several steps.
How can you say if someone is participating in a conversation with a simple plus or minus? Can you easily assign a percentage of involvement in a group play?
Rubrics are the perfect solution for taking data on social skills. Rubrics include multiple skills and break down each skill in levels of competencies. You can rate each skill and end up with a numeric value. The point of taking data is to show growth and identify areas of need. Using these rubrics, you will be able to readily show growth over time and pinpoint specific areas to target with additional instruction.
While the student is participating in the social activity, begin scoring the responses on the rubric. After the activity is done, rate each section and add up the total. It’s great because it gives a numeric value to a group of skills. This way you are able to track several components of the larger skill. You can incorporate rubrics right into your IEP goals. Instead of the ever annoying “Participates in a conversation with 80% accuarcy” (um, what?!) – you can say “… will score an 11 or above on attached rubric on 3 consecutive days.” It’s objective, specific, and measureable!
I’ve got an awesome new resources for topic! Check out my Social Skill Rubrics! There are 10 rubrics included in this resource. The editable versions are included in the zip file so you can customize to meet the needs of your students. The same rubric is included twice on each page so you can easily take data on multiple students at once or use the same page for two days.
There are 3 Visual Rubrics included in this resource. These are to use directly with the student. Before beginning the social activity, review the criteria and goals. After the the social activity, add the scores on the rubric together and provide feedback for each skill. I love laminating these and using with students in small groups. Then I transfer the scores to the data! #inksaver
Use the data sheet to track the scores over time. Use one data for each student and add the score on the rubric for each session. The rubrics definitely take up a little real estate on each page so you will want a way to really see that progress develop over time. Transfer the scores to the data sheet so you can see if skills are improving!
Sneaky hint: For rubric components that include a frequency for the skill (ie. comments more than 3 times), use the space under the skill in the first column to keep track with tallies or check marks.
Learn more about this resource here!
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19 Responses
I’m desperately looking for a copy of ” The autism helper” Please could you point me in the right direction to purchase a copy . Many thanks . Chris
Here is the link: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Social-Skills-Rubrics-3007754.
Hi Sasha,
Wow – what a great resource! Thank you for sharing. I am an occupational therapy student working on a project to create a visual documentation aid to track progress in similar client areas: attention to task, affect, regulation etc. as well as in other areas, to make documentation more measurable and objective. Is there any research you used to help guide your tool creation and implementation?
Thank you and looking forward to your response,
Vivian
Hi Vivian, I think I just emailed you about this! Good luck creating your rubrics! 🙂
Hi Sasha, I was wondering if you could give me some advice in regards to a goal with the measurement criteria using you visual conversation rubric. The student in mind has moderate complex communication needs. Student is verbal but has difficulty with comprehending oral speech and finding the words to respond therefore gets frustrated and demonstrates negative behavior. We are wanting to use conversation strips with the student for a speech/communication goal using your rubric but not sure how to make the criteria measurable for one IEP year. (hope that makes sense)
Great question Esther. Which conversation skills are you looking to increase? (commenting, responding to questions, etc.) and which are you looking to decrease? (walking away, demonstrating frustration – if so what does that look like) Maybe have a row for each area for increase or decrease. Have the highest level include all skills that would demonstrate mastery – ie. if this student completed this skill perfectly what would it look like? Then fill in the lower scores with either more prompts, less correct options, etc. Sometimes it helps to start at the end and work backwards.
Hi Sasha!
My name is Katerina, I’m from Kazakhstan. You have a very useful material that can help me in working with children with autism. How can I get an electronic version? I will be grateful for the answer!
Hi Sasha!
My name is Katerina, I’m from Kazakhstan. You have a very useful material that can help me in working with children with autism. How can I get an electronic version? I will be grateful for the answer!
Hi Katerina! All of my materials are electronic download! Click on the link to purchase and it’s an instant download.
I am very interested in these when I start my social skills group. However, I am also looking for a pre and post test regarding their understanding, improved behavior etc. Do you have anything like that?
These are great showing their engagement in the group.
Hi Ashley! I don’t have a pre/post test but I would actually use the exact same rubric to collect baseline data and show growth after your instruction. I typically use the rubric to gather baseline data for a current skill level (before we do any instruction on a specific skill) then we do modeling, instruction, group discussion, fade prompts etc. while working on the targeted skill. I use the rubric throughout the instruction to determine when the skill has been mastered. Hope this helps! 🙂
Do you have examples of IEP goals you have written that coincide with the skills on these rubrics?
I will work on a post on this but something like “Johnny will demonstrate conversation skills with a score of 9 out of 10 on the attached rubric within two different environments on 5 consecutive opportunities.”
These are awesome! I now am working with higher functioning Autism and was wondering if you have rubrics or guidance for making some for more advanced skills around conversations, class participation, etc for 7-9th graders who are able to attend more mainstream classes.
Thank you so much!
Hi,
I stumbled upon your website when I was searching for Participation Rubrics. I am a teacher of students with Severe Disabilities specifically Intellectual Disabilities (Middle School but Pre-K level). I am working on using games (From WordWall) in all my lessons on Math, Alphabets, Story, and Science in order to increase participation. If you can share me some Rubrics to measure progress on participation and reduce misbehaviors I would appreciate it very much.
Check out these behavior rubrics. These may be helpful: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Behavior-Rubrics-5151630
Hi there,
I have a question about scoring rubrics. How do you score the rubric when a behavior is not observed? For example, if a communication breakdown did not occur for the student to identify and solve, how do you score that area?
Thanks,
Kim
I would make that whole section as n/a meaning the student did not have the opportunity to practice that skill and then remove those points from the total possible. Great question!
Thanks Sasha!