Kelly McKinnon and Janis L. Krempa: Social Skills Solutions: A Hands-on Manual for Teaching Social Skills to Children with Autism

Ms. McKinnon and Ms. Krempa have worked together to create a social skills manual that is appropriate for a wide variety of children on the autism spectrum. Further, they sought to make a manual that could be used by the parents, teachers, or mental health professionals who work with children on the autism spectrum. To target such a wide array of readers is no easy task, but the authors do an excellent job of reaching out to readers at all levels. The text of the book is filled with explanations for why social skills strategies are necessary, both based on the authors’ clinical experiences and drawn from research. Although the language is primarily easy to read, some professional terminology is used in the book. To ensure all readers can follow along, the authors provide a glossary at the end of the book which contains nearly 100 entries, ranging from data-focused terms (e.g., baseline, frequency) to intervention-focused terms (e.g., errorless teaching, positive behavioral support). The strategies within the book are based on the broad ABA approach, pulling from a variety of techniques under that umbrella. Strategies incorporate visual supports, video modeling, social stories, scripts, verbal behavior, and many other methodologies that fall within the realm of ABA. The authors focus on the importance of using data driven strategies. They take the reader from initial assessment through goal-setting and implementation of strategies to ongoing assessment. The authors outline a sequential list of social skills that build upon one another and have created a social skills checklist that can be used to assess each child within that list of skills. Once assessment has been completed, the authors focus on utilizing a variety of social skills strategies. At this point, the book focuses on providing a long list of many strategies that may be appropriate for children working on the skills noted on the checklist. The appendices of the book provide some visual supports for implementing some of the strategies noted, but the number of strategies suggested is too great to provide examples for all of them. Additionally, some of the strategies are vague in terms of details on how to implement the strategy. While many professionals would have the necessary background for implementation, parents may find themselves needing a bit more support or information before utilizing some of the strategies outlined. Nonetheless, so many strategies are suggested, nearly anyone reading this book would find some helpful suggestions for the child with autism in their life. The information about strategies presented within Social Skills Solutions is often scattered throughout the book. For example, information about video modeling is presented early in the manual as a possible strategy, but the rationale and specific details for video modeling are presented later in the book. The reason for using specific strategies is presented early in the book, but samples of those strategies are presented in the appendices. Given the way in which the book is designed, it would be most helpful for readers to read through the entire book before selecting some of the suggested strategies for use with children. This approach would ensure that the reader had all necessary information for appropriately implementing the selected strategies. It is important to note that this book does not appear to be designed as a ‘‘use as you go’’ type of reference, but rather as an information-packed manual that should be read in its entirety first. S. L. Pozdol (&) Riley Hospital for Children and IU School of Medicine, Christian Sarkine Autism Treatment Center, 702 Barnhill Drive, Suite #4300, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA e-mail: spozdol@iupui.edu