Special Connections: A Social Media Website for Teaching Social Skills to Individuals with Cognitive Disabilities
Abstract: Among every adult, social skills have, in some way, affected the outcome of communal situations and quite possibly the quality of everyone’s social life at some point. Yang describes social skills as a, “complex set of skills that include the development of effective social behaviors, an awareness of the social norms that affect social behavior in different situations, and the abilities to select effective responses, to perceive accurate feedback from others, and to modify one's social behavior based on the feedback received” (Yang, 2009). Though social skills can be taught, individuals with cognitive disabilities find it difficult to socially interact with others. In this paper, we discuss our approach to teaching individuals with cognitive disabilities the essential basics of socially interacting with others through the use of a social networking site named Special Connections.
Presider: Chieu Vu-Minh, University of Michigan