The term Social Skills (SS) is used to describe a set of behavioral repertoires that
involve social interactions satisfactory. Most published studies on this topic include the
participation of children and adolescents by addressing situations in the school
environment. Few studies have focused on the health area, and, so far, it has not been
found surveys on SS conducted with individuals with the Anomaly of Sex
Differentiation (ASD). This anomaly is characterized by malformations in the genitals
and/or dysfunction of the gonads, causing secondary sexual characteristics which do not
correspond to the sex of rearing. Clinical studies with individuals with ASD have
highlighted the occurrence of deficits in social skills in these individuals, characterized
by the escape-avoidance of aversive social situations. In this study, we sought to
characterize the behavioral repertoire corresponding to SS in individuals with ASD
treated at an outpatient clinic of a specialized program developed in a public hospital in
Belém, through two complementary studies. At first, we performed a cross-sectional
study, with the aim of characterizing the behaviors corresponding to SS in individuals
with ASD. The participants were 9 adults in treatment for more than six months. Were
used: Interview Script, Protocol for review of medical records and Social Skills
Inventory - SSI. The results suggest that the participants have social skills deficits in all
the factors of the SSI to a lesser or greater degree, so that could benefit from a social
skills training as part of the treatment because it is a technique that aims at overcoming
and/or reducing the deficits produced by them. In the second part, a study with a single
subject design was performed seeking for evaluating the effects of using self-monitoring
training in the installation of behaviors corresponding to SS. Attended an adult woman
diagnosed with ASD selected among those who participated in Study 1. The
intervention procedure was conducted through weekly interviews, according to the
following steps: (1) Agreement: signing the consent form and scheduling an
appointment, (2) Evaluation: Baseline survey of behaviors corresponding to SS,
preparation of the hierarchy of behaviors that indicate a deficit, under the analysis rules
of the SSI, and training in self-monitoring record, (3) Intervention: reading a text on
social skills, presentation of the list of basic human rights, application of the adapted
Goldiamond’s Constructional Questionnaire, and training in self-monitoring record, (4)
Re-evaluation of the SS: reapplication of the SSI; (5) Follow-up: assessing the
maintenance of the gains to the study, and (6) Closing: return interview in order to
explain the results of the study to the participant. The results suggest that the
intervention promoted the development of SS in the participant, given the interpretation
of the participant’s evolution presented in accordance with the variation of Z score and
the graphical representation of reliable change and clinical significance.
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