Group Intervention to Promote Social Skills in School-age Children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders: Reconsidering Efficacy

Children with attention disorders can experience adverse long-term effects on academic performance, vocational success, and socioemotional development. They experience some level of functional impairment that extends across settings, including the home and school. In combination with medication, group interventions with school-age children were found to be effective for enhancing social behavior. This article describes two practice improvement projects that provided group experiences for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, including disruptive behavior. Four skill domains were addressed: communication, friendship, self-control, and social problem solving. One project provided activities for early school-age children with ADHD who were treated with medication only. Another provided a support group on self-management for freshman boys with ADHD who were also treated with medication only. In both projects, the disruptive behavior of the participants decreased by the end of the group sessions.

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Simultaneous assessement of social skills and behavior problems: Education and gender

Estudos de Psicologia (Campinas) ◽

10.1590/1982-02752016000300009 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 33 (3) ◽

pp. 453-464 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Alessandra Turini BOLSONI-SILVA ◽

Sonia Regina LOUREIRO

Keyword(s):

Social Skills ◽

Behavior Problems ◽

Behavior Problem ◽

Primary Caregivers ◽

School Age Children ◽

School Age ◽

The Social ◽

And Gender ◽

And Behavior

Abstract The aim was to compare the social skills of preschool and school-age children, considering groups differentiated by behavior problem indicators, according to the assessment performed by parents and teachers. Children of both genders participated in this study. Parents/primary caregivers assessed 194 children and 294 children were assessed by their teachers. The results indicated that, for the parents and teachers, the children without problems were more socially skilled. The gender of the children distinguished the repertoire of social skills, according to their parents, mainly the school-age children. For the teachers, considering both school periods, girls were more socially skilled and, for both parents and teachers, boys presented more behavior problems. These data have implications for assessment and intervention procedures.

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Internet game "Sign me up as an astronaut" for the formation of the social and psychological experience of younger adolescents with disabilities by means of game psychocorrection

10.12731/sign_me_up_as_an_astronaut ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Anastasia Styugina ◽

Keyword(s):

Distance Education ◽

Social Skills ◽

Group Work ◽

Social Experience ◽

Educational Process ◽

Educational Technologies ◽

School Age Children ◽

Personal Resources ◽

School Age ◽

The Social

In the practice of a teacher-psychologist at the School of Distance Education, the game “Sign me up as an astronaut”, developed by the author, was tested, aimed at developing the skills of social and psychological interaction in younger adolescents with disabilities through the awareness and strengthening of personal resources by means of game psychocorrection. The specifics of the work of a psychologist at the School of Distance Education are determined by the following circumstances: - students have a severe disability and the corresponding psychophysical characteristics: instability of the emotional-volitional sphere, lack of motivation, severe physical and mental fatigue, low level of social skills, etc. - the use of distance educational technologies in psychocorrectional work; - lack of methodological recommendations for psychocorrectional work in conditions of distance technologies with school-age children. Such recommendations are available mainly for adults, they relate to the educational process, but they do not cover the correctional process. There is enough scientific and methodological literature on psychological and pedagogical correction, which is the basis for ensuring the work of a practicing psychologist, but there are difficulties in transferring these techniques, games, etc. - to the remote mode of correctional and developmental work, especially in the form of group work. During the game, various social and psychological situations are solved, which are selected strictly according to the characteristics of the social experience of the participants.

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A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial of D-Cycloserine for the Enhancement of Social Skills Training in Pervasive Developmental Disorders

10.21236/ada574389 ◽

2011 ◽

Author(s):

Daniel Fink

Keyword(s):

Social Skills ◽

Pervasive Developmental Disorders ◽

Social Skills Training ◽

Developmental Disorders ◽

Controlled Trial ◽

Skills Training

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Effect of Group Intervention Using Emoticons on Emotional Empathy and Conversational Function of School-Age Children With Intellectual Disabilities

Journal of speech-language & hearing disorders ◽

10.15724/jslhd.2021.30.2.009 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 30 (2) ◽

pp. 9-20

Author(s):

Hye Young Han ◽

Eun Sil Park ◽

Hye Jung Shin

Keyword(s):

Intellectual Disabilities ◽

Group Intervention ◽

School Age Children ◽

School Age ◽

Emotional Empathy

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Handling the Psychological Distress of Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders:

Artha - Journal of Social Sciences ◽

10.12724/ajss.20.3 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 35

Author(s):

Indiramma V ◽

Seema P Uthaman ◽

Shoba Srinath

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorders ◽

Psychological Distress ◽

Group Intervention ◽

Pervasive Developmental Disorders ◽

Developmental Disorders ◽

Children With Autism ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Second Phase ◽

Group Setting ◽

Spectrum Disorders

Autism Spectrum Disorders are pervasive developmental disorders affecting many children today. Parenting a child with special needs, such as children with autism, is very taxing, as they need intensive and life-long intervention in diverse areas. This paper is an attempt to assess the need of those parents of children with autism and to develop an intervention programme to take care of the psychosocial issues. The study had two phases. In the first phase 120 parents of children with autism spectrum disorders were interviewed using a semi structured interview schedule and GHQ 28. In the second phase, an intervention module was prepared and implemented with 20 parents. The results show that the mean psychological distress was significantly higher for mothers compared to fathers. The scores on subscales show that mothers have higher level of somatic symptoms, anxiety and insomnia, social dysfunction and depression compared to fathers. The pre and post analysis of the group intervention shows that there is a drop in the level of distress and increase in the awareness on child’s illness in parents after the group intervention. The findings show that addressing parental needs in a group setting can be very effective and beneficial in helping parents reduce their distress levels and hence making them better equipped to look after their child with a disability like autism. Keywords: Autism, parent intervention module, psychological distress, group work

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Screening of Developmental Difficulties during the Transition to Primary School

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18083958 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (8) ◽

pp. 3958

Author(s):

Carolina González ◽

Ramón D. Castillo ◽

José Patricio Franzani ◽

Cristian Martinich

Keyword(s):

Public Schools ◽

Social Skills ◽

Executive Functions ◽

Primary School ◽

Behavioral Problems ◽

Developmental Disorders ◽

First Grade ◽

School Age ◽

Early Screening ◽

Language Version

The five-to-fifteen (FTF) questionnaire is a screening tool completed by parents that is able to distinguish developmental disorders in children aged 5 to 15 years old. The current study aimed to characterize the developmental difficulties by gender and school age (kindergarten and first grade) of children in their transition to primary school, using the Spanish-language version of the FTF questionnaire. The participants were 541 parents of typically developed children from kindergarten and first grade in public schools in Chile. Developmental difficulties were revealed, showing that boys displayed significantly more difficulties in their social skills when compared to girls, and that kindergartners displayed significantly more developmental difficulties than first graders. The children’s developmental difficulties in executive functions, social skills, and emotional/behavioral problems exhibited interactions between gender and school age. The findings were discussed in terms of current conceptualizations of both executive functions and self-regulatory processes. These processes and functions are configured early in development, are gradually consolidated over the course of school age, and can be strengthened or weakened by conditions experienced in childhood. Early screening of developmental difficulties from the parents’ perspective would facilitate early detection of problems, as early as in kindergarten, and considering the normal adaptable development of children.

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Communicative, Social/Affective, and Symbolic Profiles of Young Children With Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders

American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology ◽

10.1044/1058-0360.0702.79 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

pp. 79-91 ◽

Cited By ~ 81

Author(s):

Amy M. Wetherby ◽

Barry M. Prizant ◽

Thomas A. Hutchinson

Keyword(s):

Young Children ◽

Pervasive Developmental Disorders ◽

Developmental Disorders ◽

Eye Gaze ◽

Pretend Play ◽

Children With Autism ◽

Limited Range ◽

Distinct Pattern ◽

School Age Children ◽

Communicative Functions

Research on children with autism and pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) has identified deficits and differences in social-communicative and related symbolic abilities. This includes a limited range of communicative functions, limited ability to use conventional preverbal and verbal means of communicating, lack of pretend play, and limited use of shared positive affect and eye gaze to regulate communicative interactions. However, most previous research has studied older preschool and school-age children and has measured one aspect of social skills. This study examined developmental profiles of two groups of young children with atypical language development using the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales (CSBS; Wetherby & Prizant, 1993). One group had been diagnosed with PDD (APA, 1994) and the second group had developmental language delays where the diagnosis of PDD had been ruled out. The results indicated that CSBS profiles of the group with PDD reflected a distinct pattern of relative strengths and weaknesses that was substantially different from the other group on 15 of the 22 CSBS scales. Significant differences were found in the clusters of communicative functions, gestural communicative means, reciprocity, social/affective signaling, and symbolic behavior. The younger children in the PDD group showed results similar to the older children, with more pronounced deficits in vocal and verbal means. Correlational findings indicate three clusters of impairments involving joint attention, symbolic play, and social/affective signaling. The implications of these findings are discussed in regard to earlier identification and intervention planning.

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