Social-Skill Interventions for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students with Disabilities: A Comprehensive Review

Abstract

Teachers and researchers have considered social-skill interventions to be an essential component in the development and progress of students with disabilities. However, there is still relatively limited research on these interventions for individuals from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds. This literature review was conducted to examine the effectiveness of social-skill interventions for CLD students with disabilities in school settings. Electronic database searches and a manual search were completed to identify studies published between 2000 and 2017 (February). Seven studies (n = 18 participants) were identified for inclusion in this review, and five types of social interventions were identified. Most participants were male, aged between 8 and 13 years old, were considered at risk for having developmental delay or had developmental delay, and were identified as African Americans. The majority of studies we reviewed utilized single-subject research designs and focused on social interactions as the goal for their individual interventions. Peer-mediated interventions and social story intervention were the most frequently used interventions. Findings suggest that, when exposed to the social-skill interventions, CLD children with disabilities improved their social behaviours and skills. Some children with disabilities maintained and generalized these behaviours across settings or playmates.