Social Skills Training with Hearing-Impaired Children and Adolescents

Abstract

Social skills training has been used with a variety of adult and child populations. This article describes the use of social skills training with hearing-impaired children. Data related to the treatment of four hearing-impaired children were presented for illustrative purposes. For all cases, social skills training resulted in improved social behavior during role play. Treatment effects also generalized to novel role-play scenes and an analogue situation. Social validation measures (subjects' and parents' satisfaction with training) supported the effectiveness of treatment. The effects of training were generally maintained at a 2-month follow-up. The potential effectiveness of social skills training with hearing-impaired children and methods to enhance treatment maintenance were discussed.