The social worlds of children are challenging and
complex. Each day at home, children are expected to learn and
follow family rules, interact with their parents and siblings in an
appropriate manner, and generally contribute to family processes
that support emotional health and safety. Similarly, children must
negotiate their way through the school day, adhering to classroom
rules, maintaining and making new friendships, and seeking out
situations that allow them to thrive as members of the school
community (Wentzel, 2002).
The student who does not know how (or who lacks
the appropriate skills) to behave appropriately and responsibly is
at increased risk for academic failure. Educators and
researchers have consistently demonstrated the importance of
pro-social behavior and skills to successful learning (O'Sullivan,
Guilford, & de Mille, 1965; Wentzel, 1989). This is
particularly true for students with disabilities, who as a group,
tend to display a greater proportion of social and/or behavioral
difficulties (Gresham & MacMillan, 1997). The presence of
pro-social behaviors (e.g., cooperation, communication, rule
following) and the absence of problem or maladaptive behaviors
(e.g., hitting, poor attention, over-activity) are obvious
components of a MACM.
As described earlier in this paper, social ability
has been conceptualized to consist of 2 primary dimensions:
“the ability to decode social information, including the
ability to understand nonverbal cues and make accurate social
inferences, and the ability to behave adaptively and effectively in
social situations” (Snow et al., 1996, p. 278). These
two dimensions roughly correspond to the cognitive (internal
mental processes) and behavioral (manifest observable
behaviors) components of social functioning. Each broad
social dimension is treated separately
below.
