Social Skills Program Research Articles

A Social Skills Group for Boys with Tourette's Syndrome

Tourette's syndrome is a complex neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by involuntary vocal and motor tics. Sufferers may also exhibit features common to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorders, in addition to anxiety, depression and low self-esteem. Parents attending the monthly Tourette's Syndrome Clinic at Great Ormond Street Hospital voiced concerns about their child's apparent social isolation and difficulty making friends. These children were offered the opportunity to participate in a social skills programme. Just over half of the children had low self-esteem in relation to social and academic situations. We adapted an existing programme with the intention of addressing some of the social difficulties associated with Tourette's syndrome and also to bring these children together in order to share their experiences. At the end of the programme children showed small increases in overall self-esteem. Reports from both parents and children suggested that all had benefitted from participation. This project resulted in the setting-up of a monthly support group for parents and children, an evaluation of which is currently underway.

Book Review: Socially speaking: a pragmatic social skills programme for pupils with mild to moderate learning disabilities

Book Review: Socially speaking: a pragmatic social skills programme for pupils with mild to moderate learning disabilities

Evaluating a Social Skills Program for Children with Learning Disabilities

ABSTRACT Children with learning disabilities are at risk for poor peer relationships even in the mainstreamed classroom. Possible negative consequences include poor school performance, delinquency, and mental and emotional problems as adults. The author discusses the implementation and evaluation of a social skills program for fifth grade children with learning disabilities (LD). A unique component of this program is the inclusion of nonhandicapped (NLD) children in the intervention. The author argues that modifying the negative attitudes NLD children have towards LD children is critical if we are to improve the social environment of children with learning disabilities.

Interaction Strain and Persons with Multiple Sclerosis: Effectiveness of a Social Skills Program

The purpose of this pilot study was to examine the effects of a social skills training program in helping persons with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) increase socialization skills specifically designed to lessen interaction strain with persons who are not disabled. A second purpose focused on the effects of social skills training on increasing self-esteem, self-efficacy beliefs, and self-referent thoughts of persons with MS. Participants in this study included twenty-six persons with MS who were randomly assigned to either a treatment or control group. While there were no significant differences between the experimental and control groups on any measure, the results suggest that these persons with MS maintained positive self-images and apparently experienced no particular anxiety in social interactions.

Computer‐based problem‐solving: the effects of group composition and social skills on a cognitive, joint action task

Summary Research concerning joint action for problem‐solving on computer‐based tasks in schools shows an increasing awareness that social context factors must be accounted for if cognitive development is to be effective. This study focuses on boys and girls working in single‐sex or mixed‐sex groups, and training for social skills as context factors and how these foci affect performance at the beginning and end of a school term (12 weeks). An experimental/observational methodology is adopted in preference to the I‐P‐I methodology which has dominated the literature in this area. Interactions most likely to achieve positive outcome/cognitive scores included elaborating discussion with little off‐task talk. Training in a social skills programme helped increase outcome scores and positive interactions over the term. Exploration of sex differences did not provide the expected results. Males scored highest on the computer task at the start and end of term. Girls in mixed‐sex groups scored better than girls working in girl‐only groups. Girls who undertook social skills training showed the highest rate of improvement over the term. Finally, end of term results were co‐varied by initial attainment on the computer task and showed that social skills training was a significant factor while downgrading sex differences to non‐significance. Step‐wise regression found initial attainment and social skills training provided the only significant contributions to the variance within final scores. Results suggest that teachers should not group pupils of low initial attainment together, that girls may work better in mixed‐sex groups and that social skills training will benefit all pupils.

Promoting Social Competence Among Severely Emotionally Disturbed Youth: Development of a Social Competence Inventory

ABSTRACT This paper describes the development of The Seriously Emotionally Disturbed Adolescent Social Competence Inventory (SEDASCI). The goal is to provide an instrument which can be used in the design of social skills programs targeting the social problems of seriously emotionally disturbed youth. A Behavior-Analytic Model was used in which empirically-based problematic life tasks were systematically identified and subsequently written into problem situations. These situations were evaluated by a second sample of seriously emotionally disturbed adolescents according to their perceived frequency, difficulty, and importance. A range of responses to the problem situations were solicited from a third sample of seriously emotionally disturbed adolescents, and their responses were evaluated by persons who assess social competence in the natural environment of these youth. Finally, an inventory was created that provides the problem statements, examples of responses ranging from competent to incompetent, and operational definitions for assigning scores to responses. The final inventory contains 42 items, which describe problems encountered with parents, peers, and staff at residential treatment centers.

Evaluation of the Sheidow Park social problem solving program for primary school children: a field study

Research has demonstrated links between children's poor peer relations and various forms of child and adult psychosocial maladjustment. Social skills training programs have been developed to increase children's social competence and reduce the risk for later problems. The Sheidow Park Social Problem Solving Program is a curriculum based cognitive social skills training program, designed for Australian primary school children. The present research evaluated the effects of this program on a variety of dimensions of children's social competence. Subjects were Reception/Year 1 children in two classes of a South Australian suburban primary school. The teacher of one class implemented the social skills program, while the other class experienced no formal social skills intervention. The results indicated that the various measures of social competence employed were relatively independent of one another, supporting the need for a comprehensive range of measures in social skills training research. The Sheidow Park program demonstrated a significant effect on children's sense of social self-competence and the degree to which they perceived a variety of challenging social situations as difficult to deal with. However, the program had no effect on teacher and peer ratings of children's social competence or on children's satisfaction with their wider social network. The findings are explained within the context of attribution and cognitive dissonance theories, and the strengths and limitations of both the Sheidow Park program and the present research are discussed. Suggestions for future research and modifications to the program are made.

Mental health promotion for young people: a proposal for a tripartite approach.

Child and adolescent mental health promotion programmes may be more effective if they include a combination of different approaches to health promotion rather than relying primarily on one approach. A group of complementary approaches that could be combined in a single programme include: (i) a community-wide media campaign to highlight the harmful effects of family discord on the mental health of young people; (ii) a school-based social skills programme to improve the social skills of young people; and (iii) a life skills programme to build the competence of young people "at risk' for developing mental health disorders. The potential value of this particular combination of approaches is discussed with the aim of facilitating the development of innovative new child and adolescent mental health promotion programmes in Australia.

The Sheidow Park Social Problem Solving Program: A Social Skills Program for Primary School Children, Colin MacMullin, The Institute for the Study of Learning Difficulties, Flinders University of South Australia, Bedford Park, South Australia

The Sheidow Park Social Problem Solving Program: A Social Skills Program for Primary School Children, Colin MacMullin, The Institute for the Study of Learning Difficulties, Flinders University of South Australia, Bedford Park, South Australia - Volume 6 Issue S1

Social skills training: where are we going?

This paper looks at social skills intervention programs for students. The arguments and research evidence for teaching social skills are discussed as well as the issue of which social skills should be taught. Conclusions are drawn about the most effective kind of intervention programs and arguments are presented for educational psychologist to work in collaboration with teachers to present social skills programs. The issue of peer reputations is discussed.

Self-esteem, social competence and psychopathology in boys without friends

Very little is known about relationships between children's self-reported self-esteem and their behavior. In order to evaluate this relationship, the Piers-Harris Self Concept (PHS) Scale was administered to 59 non-psychotic boys referred to an outpatient children's social skills program. The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1983) was administered to the mother and the Pupil Evaluation Inventory (PEI; Pekarik, Prinz, Liebert, Weintraub & Neil, 1976) to the teacher. Social competence, as reflected in CBCL and PEI measures, and externalizing behavior, as measured by the CBCL Externalizing Behavior scale were positively related to self-esteem. Relationships to conceptions of self-esteem and implications for assessment of treatment outcome were discussed.

The generalisation of social skills by preferred peers with autism

Although strategies have been used effectively to promote the generalisation of social skills between children with disabilities and peers without disabilities, few studies have reported procedures that foster the generalisation of social skills between young children with autism. Rarer still is the inclusion of the child with autism's choice of playmate when participants are selected for social skills programs. The study used a replicated AB design to evaluate the generalisation to the playground of selected social skills taught in a brief program conducted in an early intervention centre. Results indicate that children with autism can identify preferred peers, and when mutually selected pairs of children with autism participate in a social skills program as an addition to their ongoing participation in early intervention, increases in skills can be observed in the generalisation setting. Increases in specific skills, however, are not consistent for all children. Suggestions for future research based on ...

Social skills training for chronic psychotic patients: A French study

SummaryThe aim of this article is to describe the cognitive-behavioral methods for social rehabilitation and psychotherapy of chronic psychotic patients which are nowadays available in French-speaking countries, then to propose a theoretical framework to help integrate these various methods for use in our duly pratice and, finally, to expose our research in this field, especially concerning the topic of quality of life and social skills training programs. We present a study we designed in order to assess the impact of a comprehensive social skills training program upon quality of life of chronic schizophrenic patients. Starting from the point of view that a good psychosocial rehabilitation program is one that improves social skills and social functioning without negative effects on quality of life, we tried to show such qualities in a quite comprehensive rehabilitation program using social skills training methods corresponding to the social readaptative “modules” from Liberman and Wallace's Social and Independant Living Skills Program — “medication management module” — followed by “basic conversational skills module”, and finally, a brief adapted version of “interpersonal problem solving skills module”. We were able to observe the evolution of social skills and functioning of eight schizophrenic patients having benefited from this program, over a one year period, and we compared results regarding quality of life with two control groups made of schizophrenic patients, one of them having benefited from a supportive group therapy in order to study the impact of non-specific factors. The results indicate a clear dissociation between direct benefits of social skills training (knowledge, social skills, social functioning and symptomatology) which all showed a significant improvement in the experimental group, and subjective benefits (self-esteem, sense of self-efficacy, quality of life) which showed no change, as well when consider no intra-group as well as between group comparisons.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Social Skills Program for Preadolescents

Peer relations play a major role in the social development of children and youth. Social workers are well aware of the potential negative consequences for children who are socially excluded, and they frequently work with these children concerning issues of truancy, academic performance, delinquency, and substance abuse. This article discusses the outcome of a social skills program designed to improve the social interactions offifth-grade children. Results indicated that the treatment group made significant gains on sociometric, observational, and self-perception measures. The importance of using school social workers and staff and integrating social skills programs into elementary school curricula is also discussed.

Effects of two caregiver-training programs on burden and attitude toward help

The purpose of this research was to determine which caregiver-training program (CTP) was most beneficial to caregivers. Two types of CTPs, a behavior management program and a social skills program, were implemented. The effects of the CTPs on attitude toward asking for help, attitude about using adult day care, and caregiving burden were explored. Thirty-three caregivers volunteered to participate. Of the caregivers, the majority were female spouses ( n = 22), 76% were over age 60, and 68% had some college education. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of two CTPs or a control group. Pretest was completed during the first phase of the training program. Both CTPs met for six sessions. The control group reveived no training. The posttest was conducted 1 month after completion of the CTPs. Differences between the three groups were analyzed by using ANOVA. No differences were observed between groups. Six of the subjects chose the alternate training program when given the opportunity for further training. Caregivers who participated in both CTPs experienced a decrease in objective burden and a more positive attitude toward asking for help and using adult day care.

Collaboration in the college classroom: Evaluation of a social network and social skills program for undergraduates and people with serious mental illness.

Collaboration in the college classroom: Evaluation of a social network and social skills program for undergraduates and people with serious mental illness.

The Early Childhood Social Skills Program

The Early Childhood Social Skills Program

Teaching Social Skills to Children

ABSTRACTThis article is a narrative, describing the journey of two professional educators into the realm of teaching morals and values. As well, it is a tale of self-motivated personal/professional growth. As we outline the social skills program, from the initial decision to embark on such a novel adventure to the stage of hindsight reflection, we address such issues as teaching specific values within a pluralistic society; balancing the dichotomy between individual and societal good; exploring a realistic alternative to aggressive behavior; taking time from teaching the basics to teach a social skills curriculum; and, teachers determining their own professional/personal growth. As we explain the creation and implementation of our social skills program, we focus on a pedagogy vital to the success of the program—“role-play.” This structured interaction gives students opportunities to view, and then to improve social behavior through practice, and to receive support and positive reinforcement for appropriat...

Proactive and Reactive Aggression: An Analysis of Subtypes Based on Teacher Perceptions

Examined differences in teachers' perceptions of academic and social behavior in two subtypes of aggression in children identified as proactive and reactive. Subjects were 88 boys, ages 6 to 12 years, referred by teachers to a school-based social skills program for aggressive children. On the basis of median splits on teacher-rated measures of proactive and reactive aggression, children were categorized as: high proactive/high reactive, high proactive/low reactive, low proactive/high reactive, and low proactive/low reactive. As expected, the low proactive/low reactive group was rated as more competent in certain behaviors relative to the high proactive and/or high reactive boys. Mixed-aggressive and low proactive/high reactive children were viewed as highly aggressive and lacking in problem-solving, sharing, and negotiating abilities. Unlike the low proactive/high reactive group, the mixed-aggressive group, although seen as relatively popular and happy, had difficulty keeping out of fights and displayed poor sportsmanship.

Employment among young people with epilepsy

The study reports the findings of a follow-up review of 38 trainees who had completed social skills training programmes run by BRAINWAVE The Irish Epilepsy Association and FAS, the state training and employment authority, during the period 1986 to 1990. The social skills programmes were aimed at young, unqualified school leavers. A total of 101 young people completed the programmes, 45 of whom had epilepsy. Of those with epilepsy, 38 were interviewed about their current employment position. On completion of the programmes 58% had found a job or gone on to further training. At the time of interview 39% were in work or training. Fifty-eight per cent were still experiencing seizures (a seizure in the last 12 months). Fifty per cent of those interviewed felt that they were being actively discriminated against because of their epilepsy. Fifty-eight per cent had made contact with the National Rehabilitation Board, the state placement service for people with a disability, but only 36% of these were in training or employment at the time of interview. Sixty-six per cent of those interviewed had found the programmes helpful in terms of increasing their self-confidence and social skills. The study points to the need for more specialized training and job placement programmes for young people with epilepsy.