Social Skills Book

priceless

I love this photo!

odd........

Now that title speaks volumes!

Politically incorrect!!!!

How could the "Severly Retarded Adult" read it to benefit from it? Ha Ha
I think the book should be called "How to teach social skills to severly retarded adults"
The real title comes off as a little silly!

Mona,
i am certain that even "severly retarded adults" ( ugh, i loathe that wording.) are capable of reading, or at the least being read to.

That book was one of the classics in the field. It was written in 1980 by McClennen, Hoekstra & Bryan, and was a curriculum for teaching social skills to people with severe intellectual disabilities. You could do an inventory to assess the person's current social skills and then there were actual programs to help teach and develop any needed skills. This started with basic skills, such as how to make eye contact, social smiling, etc., and then moved up the ladder of basic interaction skills that most of us learn naturally but many folks need help learning.

I wonder if it's still in print... I have a couple of colleagues who might benefit...

Wording of the name aside, I can see how this would be incredibly useful for someone who doesn't know how to interact in "normal" society. I think there are many people out there who would benefit from reading this, even though they are considered "normal". I wouldn't mind reading it myself, come to think of it...

Sketch, you don't work at a Hebridean airport do you? Just wondering...

Um, no... I'm not even sure where that is! I don't work around people (I see two or three a day tops), which is why I wouldn't mind a "brush-up" on social skills... :D

Sorry, bud. Looks like I could do with a browse through it myself. I'll check on Amazon...

Hmm might see if there is a copy on Ebay -- One of those things you need to have a check into. I'm a collection whore for vintage reads medical books especially.

Ooooh! Me too! I have several shelves of old medical books I have collected that I keep at work and boxes and boxes and boxes of vintage books at home that aren't quite so "scientific" but are vastly superior to most books written today. Well, except for the fact that the older books tend to be incredibly moralistic. However, the writing style and the vocabulary are both incredible. At work recently in the old library I found a first edition Gray's Anatomy. Yes, you may well stare, as I believe there were only two thousand copies of the first edition printed. [Beams happily, wishes she owned it personally]

P.S. I am betting that this particular book is pretty easy to find. I am sure we still have a copy or two where I currently work and I have seen copies of these at all the different facilities I have worked at.

The contrast of the written word between the new and old is quite dramatic. Older written books (on any subject) are much more text heavy than the modern ones that rely mostly on pictures to get their point across. Where is the happy medium? Volumes written in the 50's and 60's seems to be the best cross-section of text and photos.

I have a book thats rare and out of print: Surgical Errors and Safeguards by Max Thorek -1932. It's one of my Christmas Presents lol. I'm happy that I found a copy though it's worth it. 600 some illustrations.

The title wasn't politically incorrect at the time. Not because people then were particularly insensitive, but because the word "retarded" isn't inherently bad. Any word becomes bad when it's said and repeated in derogatory or scornful manner.

k im getting pissed..insane ppl ARNT retards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! V.V

No they aren't retards, but they under so much stress and pressure from the insanity that it does make it very difficult for them to read it.

haha its abslotly pricless motts absolutly priceless

Do retarded people read?

i would like to read that.not that im retarded.not that i have anything against retarded people.

Mentally Challenged...not Retarded *shivers*

You tell them Manidalisa !!!!

This made me laugh. I have nothing against mentally retarded/challenged/disabled people at all, and I don't want to sound cruel, but the title of this book just tickled my funny bone.

For such a classic and informative text on the subject of mental retardation (this information, by the way, is courtesy of one of Lynne's above comments), I can't believe that they would use such a politically incorrect title. And if the book is in fact still in print, I do hope they've re-named it. Something like that could offend a great deal of people that do suffer from mental retardation. And those who don't might just think the book's a big joke, with a title like that.

If the hospital ceased most of its operations in 1976, it seems strange that a book published in 1980 would be laying around

everyone needs to relax. retarded simply means slow, that's why retardundo is used to express where music usually becomes slower.

Not to sound snotty or anything but its retardando

I just read a paper written by my 16 year old highly intelliegent son. In it he writes - . . . If I had the time and resources my first skill learned would be the art and ability to socialize . . . Love this photo - Found while searching for tips to throw into our conversations ! Needless to say - We could all use a whole lot of help, eh?

Aren't we ALL just severly retarded adults?

damn....that's a kinda mean book lol

It almost has the look of a childs board game.

Signed: An American Soldier in Germany.

You should send that book to all Big-Wigs in the White House.
Hey Gorge W. Bush we got a book for YOU!!!

you said it, brother! Bush is an idiot!

I'll pay someone to go get that book I need it for work.

killer find!

Ashley it was probably an older copy of the book. they proabably reprinted it

Nice touch...

a hahahahahahahahahahah...*wipes away a tear*...aaaahhahahahahaa
thats funny

Dee Dee Dee! Weak. This is quite an interesting shot.

You know, most people who are considered *ahem* "retarded" are usually smarter than most "normal" people. What really is normal anyway? Nobody knows 'cause there's no such thing so, NYEAH!!! ( pulls bottom eyelid down and sticks out tongue).

Mabey Charlie Gordon may have tooken a cue from THAT book!

AMAZING!

good eye ashley!!

Used copies of the "Social Skills" book are available on amazon.com. Especially given the date of the book, I don't find anything offensive about the title. Mental retardation is classified as mild, moderate, severe, or profound. The diagnosis is made on the basis of IQ testing and assessment of the person's skills (or lack of skills) in various aspects of daily living. If evaluations of the person cannot yield a valid score (the person is "untestable"), the diagnosis "unspecified mental retardation" is used. A person with severe mental retardation would not be able to read, while a person with mild mental retardation would be able to read at about a sixth or seventh grade level. I think the word "for" in the book's title is used in the sense of "giving to." For example, "blankets for the homeless" doesn't mean that homeless people will be weaving blankets, it means that there is a drive to collect blankets to be given to the homeless. I recall reading a comment by a former employee of the hospital which said that at the time of its closure (parts of the hospital were used until 1991), the residents were people with Down Syndrome. Given that, this book would have been most appropriate. The word "retard" is always offensive, as are words like "nuthouse," "cuckoo house," and "mental" when used as a noun. What makes them offensive is not (just) that they are politically incorrect, but that they HURT. They devalue and disregard the people to whom they refer. I don't mean to come across as harsh in this comment or any of my others. I'm trying to share what I've learned from individuals and families, in hope of increasing understanding and acceptance.

*falls off chair

I agree with Ashley...that is sort of weird. Why would a book published in 1980 being a hospital that closed four years earlier?

Which is exactly what you said in paragraph two of the preamble. Been a while since I've visited, but the site just gets better and better! Great work.

Shit that's where I drop that book!!!

That looks like something I would read. I would have taken this if I found this.

haha i saved this pic i will use it somewhere i probably need to read that book too lol

actually one comment here hit the nail on the head, the facility was closed as a psychiatric hospital in the mid 70's (my grandmother actually worked there as a nurse until they closed) , at that point in the mid 70's the grounds were partially renovated by the DMH, and it was converted into a facility to house the mentally retarded, my mother worked there until it was closed in the early 90s (due to severe DMH cutbacks), she used to always bring me to work, so some of my earliest memories are in the facility, in the early 90s when the facility was closed, most of the mentally retarded occupants were either A) moved to housing, atleast the ones that could handle it, or B) transferred to the wrentham developmental center, in Wrentham, MA... my mother was actually transferred to Wrentham with a few other lucky employees that were transferred over with the clients at closing... so it makes sense that a book on mental retardation from the 80s would be found in the hospital, as that was the decade it was primarily operating as a DMH facility for the retarded. The facility was used for an annual haunted house, one of the best i've ever been to, until it was determined unsafe due to asbestos and deteriation... the state sold the property a few years back in an open auction. It was purchased by the Lorusso corp. and developed into a retail/residential location.. i'm actually typing this from my home across the street.. oh and the morgue was one of the staples of the original psych facility, located in a room off one of the tunnels that adorned the entire facility.. it was used until about 1970 when they finally began to use an off facility morgue service for the last 6 years of psych operation...

HI:

Facility witch hunts exist too.


Karen J. Dawe

strange.