Social Skills Training in Natural Play Settings: Educating through the Physical Theory to Practice.

Social skills are prerequisite to academic performance and success in school. Training of these skills is particularly important for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) who have social deficits and struggle maintaining appropriate and accepted behavior in and outside of the classroom. Educating through the physical model is a social skills training program delivered in natural settings of physical activity and play. Designed for elementary special education teachers and physical education teachers, this article introduces the Educating Through the Physical Model and illuminates its merit as a natural-setting social skills intervention. Primarily the article extends theory to practice by sharing a sample of activities that can be implemented to target 12 behavioral goals that are included in the model for enhancing students’ social skills.