The curriculum guide consists of a set of assessment tools, curriculum decision guidelines, instructional recommendations, and sample activities focused on teaching basic social and communication skills to children with autism and severe developmental handicaps. Section One provides an introductory discussion of issues related to effective socialization, emphasizing the need to promote social competence within dyadic interactions. An assessment model utilizing direct observation, interviews with caregivers and teachers, and informal testing is presented in Section Two. Section Three outlines a systematic and detailed set of curriculum decision guidelines organized around five strands: (1) anticipating events in the context of familiar social routines; (2) using socially directed behaviors to reestablish preferred activity or to obtain desired objects; (3) using functional communication; (4) expanding upon basic communication by expressing various categories of meaning; (5) combining two categories of meaning when communicating. Suggestions for classroom organization are offered in Section Four, followed by a section describing effective instructional techniques for teaching functional social and communication skills. Substantial appendices include references, sample activities for each curriculum strand, and a self-instructional guide to teaching communication skills in naturally occurring context. (JW)