Cognitive social skills were assessed in 22 learning disabled (LD), 18 behavior problem, and 20 control boys in grades 7-9. Measures included an interview tapping social knowledge, self-reported behavior, generation of alternative solutions to social problems, and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised Vocabulary Scale. Sociometric ratings were obtained for the LD and control groups and a subsample of the behavior problem Ss. LD and behavior problem Ss received significantly lower ratings on the sociometric measure than did controls. They also proposed alternative solutions to assertion-related social problems which were significantly lower quality than controls. Scores correlated significantly with sociometric ratings but not with vocabulary scores. Behavior problem Ss proposed alternate solutions to aggression-related situations which were of significantly lower quality than controls. Difficulties in social problem solving skills appear to be situation-specific and may not be simply a function of verbal intelligence. (Author/CL)