Customer Reviews

Treating Youth with Dsm-IV Disorders: The Role of Social Skill Instruction

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I was very disappointed with this book, especially since Teaching Basic Social Skills to Youth is an excellent companion volume. This book is quite lightweight by comparison.

Most of the DSM-IV disorders are covered. The diagnostic criteria for each disorder are listed on a one half of a page while the skills that need to be taught are listed opposite. Many of the skills are very general, e.g. anger management. To be fair specific skills are also suggested. A framework within which to situate the teaching is sketched at the end of the book.

The book is trying to cover a vast amount of ground, and in my opinion, the framework that is there isn't developed enough to ground some of the recommendations. There is a sense of 'trust us, these are the skills for disorder X'.

Peculiarly the book completely ignores autism, Asperger and PDD. No social skills programmes are suggested for these groups. They aren't even listed among the DSM-IV disorders covered in the book. Given the volume of resources devoted to autism, this is a most bizarre omission. I would recommend filling the gap here with Succeeding with Interventions for Asperger Syndrome Adolescents.

Those reservations aside, many who are actively working with difficult youth will find something of value here. How you value the book depends ultimately on your requirements.

Teachers always identify "what's wrong" with their special needs students. Here's a book which will assist in turning things around to a positive point of view.

The authors have written several excellent and easily applied programs for the special education classroom. Their guidelines and skill breakdowns have become the "Bible" of my classroom. The concepts can be applied at all developmental levels, yet it's not a one size fits all approach.

I recommend this book to all educators; both regular ed and special ed. There's information in here for everyone to apply in their daily classroon activities.