Kate Silver-Assessing and Developing Communication and Thinking Skills in People With Autism and Communication Difficulties - A Toolkit For Parents and Professionals (JKP Resource Materials) (2005)
System By Stephanie Janzen Published by Pearson Is norm referenced (sample of 4,170) and has separate norms for boys and girls. Requires Level B qualifications The Social Skills Rating System focuses on: social skills, problem behaviors, academic competence (in teacher report form)
Product Information { Use SSRS to: Assess children who have problems with behavior and interpersonal skills
Identify students at-risk for poor academic performance
Detect the problems behind shyness, trouble initiating conversation, and difficulty making friends
Select behaviors for treatment and assist in planning intervention Forms Teacher Parent Student Preschool Elementary Secondary 3 Ratings Forms Age Groups Subscales Social Skills Cooperation Assertion Responsibility Empathy Self-Control Problem Behaviours Externalizing Problems Internalizing Problems Hyperactivity Academic Competence A single scale without subscales Each takes approx. 15-25 min on average Procedure: Checklists can be completed by teacher, parents or examinee (with 3 rd grade reading level). Easily completed. Each questionnaire contains 34-57 items Answers are on a Likert-type scale based on the frequency and importance of the behavior.
0=never 1=sometimes 2=very often
Ease of Administration Administration = easy & quick Scoring takes 5 minutes Raw scores from each form transferred to subscale scores, and converted to scale scores, behavior levels, standard scores and percentile. Interpretation = moderately difficult (professional). New version has electronic scorers Scoring 10 copies of each type of questionnaire booklet 10 assessment-intervention records & manual Larger kits include more than one education level (additional cost) Scoring software for Mac & Windows available from publisher ($385) Materials Results produce an Assessment-Intervention record (AIR) which combines the perspectives of each rater on a single form.
ASSIST for SSRS provides clear behavioral objectives and suggestions for planning intervention (available separately). Intervention Planning Internal Consistency: Yielded average coefficient alpha reliabilities of .90 for the Social Skills scale, .84 for the Problem Behaviors scale, and .95 for the Academic Competence scale. It is said to have adequate internal consistency when it was validated using a sample of 185 students.
Test-retest Reliability: Respondents for the elementary-ages sample were given the test a second time 4 weeks after the initial administration. According to the manual, teacher scores correlated between .84 and .93, parent scores correlated at .65 on the PB scale and .80 on the SS scale, and the student self-rating scores correlated at .68 on the SS scale Reliability Construct & Convergent Validity: Comparison between SSRS and Social Behavior Assessment (SBA) was consistent with theoretical expectations and are both measuring similar constructs.
Also compared SSRS with CBCL-Youth Self Report (YSR) and Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale (Piers-Harris 2). This yielded low to moderate correlations for several subscale scores.
A study performed by Walker and McConnell showed .75 correlations between the Walker-McConnell Scale of Social Competence and School Adjustment and the SSRS Teacher form. Validity General Evaluation Generally positive for this rating system Is said to be extremely effective CONS - Professionally graded - Could be difficult to grade based on the clinicians experience and interpretation guides in manual - Outdated norms -No Canadian norms PROS - Highly reliable - Time efficient - Relatively inexpensive - Easy to use - Forms can be done separately - Benefits of AIR - Large sample
Kate Silver-Assessing and Developing Communication and Thinking Skills in People With Autism and Communication Difficulties - A Toolkit For Parents and Professionals (JKP Resource Materials) (2005)