Social skills for social competence:A study on learning disabled students / Roslyn Phiong

This study examined the social skills and social competence among the learning disabled students within the theoretical framework of Albert Bandura of Social Learning Theory (SLT). Evaluation on Social skills and social competence were done with nine Learning Disabled (LD) students age between fourteen to seventeen in SMK S, nine parents of the Learning Disabled (LD) students and two teachers who directly involved with them.The evaluations were using Social Skills Questionnaire (SSQ), Social Competence Questionnaire (SCQ), semi-structured interview, observation and document analysis. The Social Skills Questionnaire (SSQ) were designed using five point Likert-scale; 5-Always, 4-Frequently, 3-Seldom, 2- Occasionally and 1-Never. The Social Competence Questionnaire (SCQ) were also using five point Likert-scale; 5-Strongly Agree, 4-Agree, 3-Neither Agree nor Disagree, 3-Disagree and 1-Strongly Disagree. The purposes of the current study were to determine the social skills used among students with learning disabilities and to identify the level of social competence of the Learning Disabled students. Besides, it was aimed to identify the strategies used by teachers in implementing social skills among the students with learning disabilities. Results indicated that students with learning disabilities are having poor social skills. The inability to initiate and sustain appropriate social relationships resulted in poor development of the skills. Besides, having the difficulties with social cues hinders them in having more friends and this has affected their competency. The findings also stated that teachers do integrated social skills using their own strategies like simple body language, positive reinforcement as well as direct instruction. It is hope that the results will benefit the education system, policy development, teacher development, parents as well as the society in order to understand the Learning Disabled people.