Social Competence/Social Skills
Interacting in an age-appropriate way with parents, teachers, and friends represents an important adaptive behavior for children.

Social skills are the specific behaviors that children use when faced with an interpersonal situation (e.g., eye contact, voice intonation, asking open-ended questions, complimenting, engaging in reciprocal conversation). Social skills are the observable behaviors upon which the global evaluations for social competence are, in part, based.

An individual's degree of social competence and social skills can be assessed objectively and addressed through skills-training programs. Play-group-therapy and social skills groups, as well as individual therapy, are used to address deficits in social competence.