The Social Information Processing Model (SIP) (Crick & Dodge, 1994) is a well established theory across the world, and is aligned within Social Competence framework (Waters & Sroufe, 1983) research.

The SIP model (Crick & Dodge, 1994) suggests that six interacting social information processing skills inform children’s social behaviour.

A large catalogue of empirical studies has helped to validate this model (see Fontaine, 2010; ven Reemst et al., 2016).

The model presents a sequence of six social information processing skills, however it is suggested that they may also operate simultaneously. The six social information processing skills are (1) encoding of cues, (2) interpretation of cues, (3) clarification of goals, (4) response construction, (5) response decision, and (6) behavioural enactment. Social information processing skills are informed by a persons database of social knowledge and prior social experiences. Emotions are also said to influence each processing skill (Lemerise & Arsenio, 2000).

Social Stencil lessons are strategically mapped to the SIP model, sequentially teaching each sip skill.

The model was initially developed to understand the cognitive processing skills that differentiated aggressive and non-aggressive boys (Dodge, 1986) and later was extended to describe all social behaviour (Crick & Dodge, 1994).

The SIP model lends itself to empirical analysis. The explicit definitions of each social information processing skill makes it possible for programs to teach each skill, also making it possible for program evaluations to directly measure children’s learning of each SIP skill, compared pre- and post- intervention (Durlak et al., 2011).

Social Stencil was formally evaluated using this approach, as part of Dr Connie Buckingham’s PhD research. However, since then, Social Stencil has also been independently evaluated over 15 times, and counting. More about that later.