FAQ

How is teaching social skills

different from teaching
academic skills?

How Can Parents get involved?

Academic skills are class specific

whereas social skills affect all aspects
of a students life. Social skills must
be reinforced across all subject and
social areas.

Parents play an integral role in social

skills instruction and student success.
The home is a natural setting in which
social skills can be practiced and
reinforced, especially in situations
where students face different
requirements or diverse social
interactions (Adams, Womack,
Shatzer, & Caldarella, 2010). In
addition to Stop & Think at school,
there are program materials for
parents to reinforce and teach
prosocial skills at home.

Are skills adapted to meet the

requirements of diverse
backgrounds?

Parents can participate in social skills

instruction by:

http://projectachieve.info/home.html

Communicating with the

school/teachers

Carrying over skills instruction

methods being used in the
school into the home

Use everyday situations to

reinforce or teach social skills

This program is a framework.

Teachers have to teach the skills
based on the diversity and cultural
backgrounds represented in the
classroom.

For more information, visit

Project Achieves Website
at:

References:
Knoff, H. M. (2010). The Stop & Think
Social Skills Program: Exploring its
research base and rationale. Little
Rock, AR: Project ACHIEVE
Incorporated.
Adams, M. B., Womack, S. A., Shatzer,
R. H., & Caldarella, P. (2010). Parent
involvement in school-wide social

THE STOP &

THINK
SOCIAL
SKILLS
PROGRAM
Adrian Mackie

What are Social Skills?

What is the Stop

& Think Social
Skills Program?
Stop & Think is a program is an
evidence-based and national model
prevention program by the U.S.
Department of Health and Human
Services Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA) in 2000 (Knoff, 2010).
The program targets ten core and ten
advanced prosocial skills appropriate
to grade level to help students learn,
practice, and master the
interpersonal, social problem solving,
conflict resolution, and emotional
coping skills and strategies. These
skills are foundational to students
physical and mental health and
wellness and are used in conjunction
with classroom management
techniques for the explicit goal of
maximizing students social and

Social skills are behaviors that

students learn. While other programs
talk about appropriate behavior, this
program focuses on desired student
behavior through direct teaching,
modelling, role-playing, and feedback
by the classroom teacher in order to
teach students classroom and
building routine skills and other
behaviors that increase students selfmanagement and academic
engagement (Knoff, 2010). The final
step is for students to be able to
apply the skills throughout the day
and receive reinforcement and
ongoing instruction throughout the
school year.

Using Universal Language

To ensure consistency, the program
uses a universal five-step language
for teaching, reinforcing, and
implementing skills:
1. Stop and Think!
2. Are You Going to Make a Good
Choice or Bad Choice?
3. What are Your Choices?
4. Do it!
5. Good Job!

Social Skills to Be Taught

Ten Core Skills:

Listening
Following Directions
Asking for Help
Ignoring Distractions
Dealing to Teasing
Answering Classroom
Questions
How to Interrupt
Dealing with Losing
Apologizing
Dealing with Consequences

Ten Advanced Skills:

Deciding What to Do

Asking for Permission

Joining an Activity

Giving/Accepting Compliments

Dealing with Accusations

Building Routines to Be
Taught

Some of the building routines that

can be taught are:

Understanding Your/Others
Feelings
Avoiding Trouble

Dealing with Anger

Dealing with Rejection/Being

Left Out

Entering Class