Overview of TASS assessment options

f.1 initial information

This form gathers information from significant others and is designed to be completed by the assessor, the person themselves, or by a significant other, e.g., parent / teacher. There are 5 sections:

1. Personal information
2. Description of person’s social skills
3. Associated factors (which then generates a summary chart in s.1)
4. Quality of Life (which then generates a summary chart in s.1)
5. Action plan

f.2 interview

This is an informal interview to assess self-awareness and self-esteem. You are asking the person about their likes and dislikes, relationships / friendships, their appearance, feelings, strengths and needs, and qualities. You then rate them on the six-point rating scale at the end which generates a chart in the summary section (s.2). This assessment includes some visual prompts for several of the questions.

f.3 self-rating scale

f.3 is an optional part of the assessment which the person themselves completes. This self-rating scale includes ratings related to a few of the associated factors, self-awareness and self-esteem, and some of the social skills behaviours assessed on the TASS rating scale (f.4). There is a 6-point rating scale from ‘very difficult’ (1) to ‘very easy’ (6), and the person is also asked which behaviours are very important to them. This generates s.3.

f.4 the TASS

The TASS is the main assessment of social skills and includes sections on body language, the way we talk, conversational and assertiveness skills. This form should be completed by you, not the person or parent. Use your observations and information from other people to score the person on each skill using the descriptions in the manual and the 6-point rating scale in terms of appropriateness to a situation: from ‘never’ to ‘always’. This then generates the TASS wheel (s.4), which is viewed in the summary section.Image of s.4