Social Skills Intervention

There should be three parts to any social skills intervention:

1. Creating opportunities across the child’s environment for social skills to flourish;
   
2. Involving peers to support the use of social skills;
   
3. Direct instructional approaches to ensure skills are taught and practised within a safe environment. 
   

In this issue we will consider the first one – creating opportunities for social skills within a child’s environment.

Creating Opportunities in the Environment

It is essential that any social skills work is supported by the child’s environment and that skills that are being taught are encouraged throughout the day.

When a child is developing social skills within normal development, an important part of this is through exposure to different situations and the ability to practise skills and receive feedback.  Therefore when teaching social skills, it is important to use the child’s environment to support your work. 

Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Consider the social opportunities that exist within their everyday routine.  Can they be used to support the generalisation and functional use of any newly acquired skill?
   
2. Does the school or home environment need to be adjusted in any way to promote new skills? Are there any aspects of their day that are not conducive to their development? 
   
3. Are the staff on board with what you are trying to teach?  Can the teachers create opportunities across their day for the child to practise their emerging and newly acquired skills? 
   
4. What is happening at home?  Involving families is an essential part of creating opportunities and parents should be encouraged to be as involved as possible. 
   

Involving other teachers and parents in what is happening is therefore an essential part of any intervention. 

But what happens when the odds are against you and the whole environment really needs to change? 

What happens if there are children who really need social skills intervention but the school or the environment you find yourself in is so poor that you’re not sure where to start? 

What if the task seems too large and the numbers of staff willing to change too small?

In these instances, it is important that you effect changes carefully.  In summary, try to:

1. Have support and permission from top-level management.  Any change requires the support from management otherwise you will undoubtedly come across issues with staffing, curriculum and accommodation.  Start by trying to sell the idea of change and if that doesn’t work, try persuading them to agree to a short-term pilot.  If this doesn’t work, then walk away and try again at a later date.
   
2. Work with forces supportive of change and develop a critical mass of support.  Start by working with the teachers who are interested and willing to implement any changes. It is essential that initially we work collaboratively with others who will support and motivate each other and prevent isolation.
   
3. Identify the natural leaders amongst staff.  Sometimes it is important for someone else to take a lead and it is useful to have someone who is a natural leader amongst your critical mass of support.
   
4. Work within organisationally healthy parts of the system. Start any change in a part of the school or environment that is already functioning well.  Choose the year with the enthusiastic year tutor and children who get on well.  This will ensure initial work is as successful as possible and will influence and inspire others.
   

Involving parents may seem easier, if more time consuming, but is essential if a child is going to generalise skills learnt within a group into their everyday life.  Parents could be invited to a social skills training event where they can learn about the skills and understand the intervention.  Or they could be visited individually and asked to become involved in the interventions. 

This is often more appropriate if you suspect that some areas of social skills are a particular issue at home.     

So in summary, any social skills intervention needs to take place within a whole environment. 

Children need the right support outside of therapy in which to practise and generalise skills. This means that the first step to any intervention programme should involve asking the questions above and then considering how to answer them.

In the next issue we will look at how to involve peers in social skills interventions.

Alex Kelly
Speech & language therapist and social skills consultant www.alexkelly.biz

Alex Kelly is the author of Speechmark's best selling Talkabout series.

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