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Are American books and websites about social skills relevant in Britain?

Arran

I don’t think that anybody can keep count of the number of books and websites about social skills – and the number keeps on increasing as each day goes by - but why is it that something close to 99% of those written in English are American? It’s probably safe to assume that they are intended to be read by Americans or immigrants to the US, rather than people who live in other English speaking countries. Social skills books and websites that are British, from another English speaking country, from a country where English is a strong second language (such as India), or translations of material published in foreign languages are rare in comparison.

Is the reason why Americans have a near monopoly on English language social skills books and websites a result of faults and failures of the American education system? Surely if kids learn social skills at school (and learning social skills is high on the list of reasons of pro-school types why kids should attend school rather than home education) then there would be little need for social skills books and websites for adults. If the American education system is not to blame, or is no less effective as a facility to learn social skills than schools in the rest of the world, then what is the explanation why Americans have written the number of social skills books and websites as they have done?

Have a significant number of social skills books and websites been written in a language other than English for use in countries where English is not the main or official language, or are they a peculiarly English language phenomenon?

Are American social skills books and websites relevant, or even desirable, for British people to learn social skills for British society, or are they misleading and largely irrelevant due to differences between British and American culture and social expectations?

Have any American social skills books and websites been evaluated and recommended for their relevance and effectiveness for children and adults with Asperger syndrome or other autistic spectrum disorders who live in Britain?

  • NAS15431 said:
    Have you found any that were any good?

    I think that only a solidly neurotypical person is capable of carrying out an effective review of books and websites about social skills because they will be better able to understand the message that the author is trying to get across. It could be unsafe for a person with ASD to try to evaluate them themself.

    Whether NAS officials are willing to devote their time and effort to this instead of organising stupid autism awareness days and fundraising events that are nothing but froth that achieves very little in reality.

  • I'm currently reading What Every Body is Saying by Joe Navarro.

    The author is a Cuban immigrant to the US who later worked for the FBI.

    Download a pdf here

  • NAS18906 said:
    That sounds like an impression rather than a real statistic! Do you have sources for that number?

    I will task you with trying to find books and websites about social skills that are written by British people primarily for a British audience. Ditto Australia and New Zealand, although there may be an odd few Canadian sources around.

    Seriously though, I get the impression that americans are far more keen on telling other people how to live their lives and the self help genre is extremely popular over there - perhaps a lot of the books are written but less read? Bristish culture is more reserved and less enterprising and both of these things will contribute to books about things like autism being less common.

    There could be some truth to this. Even so, it will be a sad indictment of the NAS if nobody has taken the time and effort to evaluate American books and websites about social skills in order to identify those which offer helpful and useful advice for British people with ASD and those which are dubious, too American, or just unhelpful or misleading.

    It's probably safe to say that many teenagers and adults with ASD in Britain who struggle with social skills, think that they have poor social skills, or have been told that they have poor social skills, have resorted to reading books and websites about social skills or have received books as a gift.

  • Former Member
    Former Member

    Arran said:

    Close to 99% is American.

    That sounds like an impression rather than a real statistic! Do you have sources for that number?

    Seriously though, I get the impression that americans are far more keen on telling other people how to live their lives and the self help genre is extremely popular over there - perhaps a lot of the books are written but less read? Bristish culture is more reserved and less enterprising and both of these things will contribute to books about things like autism being less common. I don't actually think that there is a shortage of useful stuff though. Ultimately, reading about emotional skills will only get you so far, it is more important to go out and practice by talking to other people and being comfortable with the idea thatyou are going to make mistakes and that accepting your own mistakes is part of being grown up and part of the imperfect world that we live in.

  • Geoark said:
    Population of UK, Canada and Australia in 2013 totalled 122.39 million

    Population of US in 2014 318.9 million

    For UK, Canada and Australia the UK had 64.1 milliion, over half the total despite having a much lower landmass.

    It is not really surprising that much of the literature available is American.

    The quantity of published material from each English speaking country is not roughly proportional to the population of the country. Close to 99% is American.

    The other thing to consider is that there is not a single culture within Britain, rather a mixture of cultures within British Society, each with their own rules and behavioural norms. This applies even more so to US Society.

    I have thought of this. Is it possible that both countries have federal and local cultures but the books and websites primarily address federal American culture, or are biased towards a particular local culture - I make an intelligence guess of California or the east coast?

    As to their relevance most of the strategies for improving social skills for autism were initially developed in the US.

    Many of the books and websites are not autism specific or only give a brief passing mention of ASD.

    I would be more concerned if you were talking about American literature on how to get on in business. I was speaking to someone who had spent money on Business Gurus and did what he was told for it to backfire. I asked him if they were American and tried to explain in the circumstances he explained why their advice did not work for the situation he described.

    An interesting story. A high proportion of business books are also American and may contain significant material that is not applicable outside of the US.

  • Hi Arran,

    Population of UK, Canada and Australia in 2013 totalled 122.39 million

    Population of US in 2014 318.9 million

    For UK, Canada and Australia the UK had 64.1 milliion, over half the total despite having a much lower landmass.

    It is not really surprising that much of the literature available is American.

    The other thing to consider is that there is not a single culture within Britain, rather a mixture of cultures within British Society, each with their own rules and behavioural norms. This applies even more so to US Society.

    As to their relevance most of the strategies for improving social skills for autism were initially developed in the US.

    I would be more concerned if you were talking about American literature on how to get on in business. I was speaking to someone who had spent money on Business Gurus and did what he was told for it to backfire. I asked him if they were American and tried to explain in the circumstances he explained why their advice did not work for the situation he described.