Social Skills of Sensory Challenged Children in an Inclusive Education Environment: Influence of Intervention Programme

Abstract

Social skills play an integral part for healthy and successful functioning of individuals both disabled and the non-disabled in the society. Social Skills has a tremendous influence on the academic as well as the psychosocial aspects of the children in an inclusive education environment. Enhancement of social skills will foster the social development of the sensory challenged children to establish interpersonal relationships among their peers, teachers, family and society at large. This can be possible when children have an exposure to the concept of social skills and the need to hone good social skills. Hence, in the present study an attempt has been made to study the influence of intervention programme on social skills of sensory challenged children in an inclusive education environment. 100 sensory challenged children (50 SCC from control group and 50 SCC from experimental group) in the age bracket of 10–15 years studying in an inclusive school in Bangalore city were selected. Self-structured social skills scale, formulated and standardized was used to assess the social skills of sensory challenged children. The design for the study included a pre and post method with an intervention programme. Data collected was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The study highlighted that intervention programme has an influence on social skills of sensory challenged children and should be an ongoing process in inclusive schools.