IntroductionSocial development is one of the most critical developmental areas for human beings. Deficits in social skills may negatively impact several essential domains including academic achievement, interpersonal relationships, behavior, mental health, and adult life outcome. Individuals with autism present with core deficits in social skills. Without supports and effective interventions to enhance social skills, children with autism often struggle to obtain social competence, and may experience challenges in the school, home, and community settings. With effective interventions, children with autism can learn essential social skills that can help to mitigate deficits and strengthen social competence. After a brief review of various theories of social development, this article seeks to present the constructs of social competence, social skills, and adaptive skills in relatable and clear language for educators. Finally, the article will review several evidence-based interventions designed to enhance social skills.I nterest in the role of social interaction for human development has occupied theoreticians in the last century. John Dewey (1938) considered all learning as an activity that is social in nature. Dewey theorized that effective education is derived from social interaction, cooperation, and collaboration. Dewey, therefore, progressively argued for the creation of educational environments that included developmentally appropriate and engaging social learning experiences for children. Dewey's contemporary social psychologist George Herbert Mead (1934) contended that one cannot learn to be social in a vacuum and that social interaction was a prerequisite for learning. Similarly, Jerome Bruner proposed, "The infant's principal "tool" for achieving his ends is another familiar human being." (Bruner 1983, p. 26). Bruner interpreted social interaction as both selfpropelling and self-rewarding. The Russian educational psychologist Lev S. Vygotsky (1978) distinguished between 'inter-psychological processes' and 'intra-psychological processes.' The former has to do with social interaction, cooperation, and collaboration which takes place between

More students with High Functioning Autism (HFA) are in inclusive settings than ever before. The sheer physical combination of students with autism and their typical peers is insufficient to address the social deficits of students with autism. While evidence-based practices (EBPs) for social skills exist, these practices are not being implemented routinely in public schools. A mixed-methods study was conducted to identify barriers to the implementation of EBPs for social skills for students with HFA in early elementary inclusive settings. Thirty-three (n=33) district inclusion related elementary school stakeholders completed a survey created to examine the barriers to the implementation of EBPs for social skills. Additional data collection methods included an open-ended survey question, focus groups (n=12 of the 33 survey respondents), semi-structured interviews, and researcher field notes. Training, time, support, prioritization, materials, and staff mind-set were the top six barriers to the successful implementation of EBPs for social skills as identified by elementary inclusion stakeholders. These barriers revealed three key factors necessary to successfully implement EBPs for social skills: support, preparation, and motivation. The identification of barriers is the first step in bridging the gap between research and practice within inclusion school settings.