15 Evidence-Based Social Skills Interventions That Actually Work in IEPs

Social skills don’t just develop naturally for every student—especially for those with disabilities. That’s why targeted interventions are essential. Whether your child or student has autism, ADHD, anxiety, or another learning difference, the right intervention can lay the foundation for stronger peer relationships, better classroom behavior, and improved emotional regulation.

Kevin doesn’t have any friends. That’s hard for me to say out loud. He’s 16. He’s never been invited to a sleepover, never invited to a birthday party on his own accord, or invited to come over and play at someone’s house. My kids don’t have school today and Brian asked if he could go out in the neighborhood.

Related: 101 IEP Goals for Social Skills

Kevin? He stays here with me. We play some games, read, toys, TV, and movies, but this is his every day off. Just hanging out with mom.

What hurts me the most is how much he loves to be around other kids. When Brian has friends over, he loves to be with them. He just sits on the sidelines, watching, smiling, and enjoying the company. It’s been very difficult to move him past that passive stage. His school team reports that when he is having a good day and isn’t fatigued, he engages in school groups and parties.

How to Teach Social Skills

Educators are realizing that you cannot demand certain skills of kids if they lack the foundation skills. The term “Social Emotional Learning” is a new(ish) buzzword in special education. This blog post is pretty old, so rather than scrap it and start over, I’m adding SEL to it.

I guess what I’m saying here is this. Just putting social skills goals on an IEP is outdated thinking, and futile at best. It’s an antiquated way of addressing the issue. This is an excellent video and live event I held recently on prioritizing friendships at school, and adding them to your IEP. Making friends can be an IEP goal, but I feel it’s too abstract. Many adults don’t understand the difference between acquaintance vs friendship, so this goal for making a friend could be very difficult to measure.

Peer interaction can be a goal and our kids can have success with this. It’s on us, as parents. We can get it put into their IEP, but we must spend an extraordinary amount of time and energy helping our kids develop social skills. Often when a child lacks social skills or social cognition, it is perceived to be cognitive and academic deficits.

This is a mindset shift. If you haven’t already, please watch the video embedded above. In particular, the part at the beginning about micro and macro changes that we make to our kids’ lives. Moms, stick with your gut instincts and keep advocating. It may be as simple as a social story about making friends.

Yesterday I attended a presentation from Tara of 2 B Social. When I first published this post, I felt uncomfortable with it. I have a real problem with society not accepting our kids. Why is it always the disabled kids’ fault that they have no friends? Why don’t we teach others to work harder at being friends with people who are different from us? Disabled kids already have enough on their plates. I brought this up yesterday.

“You’re right,” she said.

“We need a paradigm shift. But that takes a long time, so until we get there, these are the skills that kids need in order to be successful socially.”

Good point. I’ll do both. As she pointed out, most kids are just being told “what to do” as far as social skills goals, and they do not have the base knowledge. I hadn’t seen this for a long time, and I liked it in Tara’s context.

Social Thinking and the Social Learning Tree: You need roots before you can have leaves. I find that this is a critical error that many IEP teams miss. They create social skills IEP goals for something like “will cooperate and be friendly on the playground during recess” and completely disregard all the foundation skills that are needed before you have that skill.

When you look at the social skills, look at the roots of the tree. Match up each goal (that you are considering) to a tree root. Does the child have that skill? Then why are they being told to do something? We have to go back. It doesn’t matter what age the child is. If he doesn’t have roots, he cannot do other things.

Many kids with autism are wired differently. Particularly when it comes to interoception and proprioception. The child’s interoceptive skills and proprioceptive skills must be assessed, otherwise, you’re just frustrating and demoralizing a child with expectations he/she can never reach. And you’re just spinning your wheels as a teacher. Progress won’t happen.

Yes, social skills should be worked on at school. There is no “oh that’s social skills, we only do academics here.” If it’s an area of need, it’s an area of need. Use the IEP process and the PWN to get it on the IEP. But it is something that should be on your radar all the time, practicing and giving your child opportunities. The schools only have our kids 6 hours a day, 180 days a year. They are with us much more than that. And, social skills and things like peer interaction are sometimes not learned easily.

Social skills don’t just develop naturally for every student—especially for those with disabilities. That’s why targeted interventions are essential. Whether your child or student has autism, ADHD, anxiety, or another learning difference, the right intervention can lay the foundation for stronger peer relationships, better classroom behavior, and improved emotional regulation.

Here are 15 social skills interventions commonly used in IEPs, along with a brief explanation of how each one supports social development.

1. Direct Instruction

Explicit teaching or explicit instruction of social rules, behaviors, and expectations using structured lessons, modeling, role-play, and guided practice.

2. Social Stories

Short narratives written from the student’s perspective that describe specific social situations, appropriate responses, and expected behaviors.

3. Video Modeling

Watching videos of people demonstrating appropriate social behavior to help students learn through visual examples and repetition.

4. Peer-Mediated Instruction

Peers are taught to model and reinforce social skills, providing students with natural opportunities for practice in real-life settings.

5. Role Playing

Students act out scenarios that mimic real social situations, allowing them to practice and rehearse appropriate responses.

6. Self-Monitoring

Students track their own social behaviors using checklists or charts, encouraging independence and reflection on their own actions.

7. Prompting and Cueing

Verbal, visual, or gestural reminders that support students in using the target social skill at the right time.

8. Behavior Skills Training (BST)

A combination of instruction, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback that has strong evidence for teaching a variety of social skills.

9. Group Social Skills Training

Small groups facilitated by a teacher, therapist, or counselor where students practice skills with structured feedback and peer support.

10. Check-In/Check-Out (CICO)

Daily check-ins with a trusted adult to set behavior goals and check-outs to reflect on progress. Helpful for generalizing social skills throughout the day.

11. Social Scripts

Pre-taught phrases or sentence stems that students can use in common social situations (e.g., asking to join a game or respond to teasing).

12. Mindfulness and Emotional Regulation

Practices such as deep breathing, visualization, and body awareness to help students remain calm and regulate emotions during peer interactions.

13. Positive Reinforcement Systems

Token boards, point systems, or verbal praise to increase use of target behaviors and encourage continued effort. Note: Rewards systems are not for every child, nor should they ever be the only intervention for a child. But, some kids truly enjoy them and find them motivating.

14. Embedded Social Skills Instruction

Teaching social skills within the context of academic lessons or routines (e.g., turn-taking during science labs or math games).

15. Visual Supports

Visual aids like charts, schedules, and cue cards that support communication and understanding of social expectations.

Who Provides Social Skills Interventions?

Social skills interventions may be provided by a variety of professionals, depending on the setting and the student’s needs:

• Special Education Teachers: Often deliver direct instruction and embedded lessons in classroom settings.
• Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs): Support pragmatic language skills and social communication.
• School Counselors and Psychologists: Facilitate small groups, role-playing, and emotional regulation strategies.
• Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs): Implement behavior skills training, self-monitoring systems, and reinforcement strategies.
• Occupational Therapists (OTs): Address sensory and motor components of social interaction.
• Paraprofessionals and Classroom Aides: Support generalization through prompting and reinforcement in natural environments.
• Parents and Caregivers: Reinforce social skills at home and in the community.

Choosing the Right Intervention

The most effective intervention is the one that meets the student where they are. Assessments, observations, and input from the IEP team should guide which strategies are chosen. Often, a combination of interventions will yield the best results.

When paired with measurable IEP goals, these strategies can help students build confidence, increase independence, and create meaningful peer relationships.