Mental health articles

social skills training for children with adhd. The aim of social skills training is to help people to enter and be more effective in social situations. People who might benefit from this training may never have

acquired the skills (e.g. people with learning disabilities) or lack confidence in their skills (e.g. anxious individuals). Trower et al. define those who might benefit from social skills training as those lacking the skills to affect the behaviour and feelings of others in a way that either they intend or society accepts.

social skills training for children with adhd.A lack of social skills might be a primary source of stress leading to isolation and rejection, which in turn leads to mental distress and illness. Or it might be

secondary to mental illness affecting social performance thus adding to the original source of stress. Social skills training is premised on the idea that skills are learnt and can be taught to those who lack them enabling them to learn new patterns of interpersonal behaviour that in turn will have a beneficial effect on an individual’s mental health. Comprehensive training programmes such as those developed by Argyle and colleagues will include both verbal and non-verbal skills. These skills are presented in sessions, with suggestions for training exercises for each. The suggested session layout is:

1. introductory skills

2. observational skills

3. listening skills

4. speaking skills

5. meshing skills

6. expression of attitudes

7. social routines

8. tactics and strategies

9. situation training.

Most social skills training programmes run as groups for a set number of sessions.

Individual members will have specific goals to achieve over the course of the

programme. A session’s structure will usually include a review of the main points of the previous session and any homework assignments. Each session will have a particular theme and skill sequence, which will be discussed. Effective behaviour is modelled by the practitioner, which the service user can then imitate through

role play. Feedback on the observed behaviour is provided to assist learning. A key feature of social skills training is the importance of putting into practice the skills learnt during the sessions and therefore the service user and practitioner agree specific tasks to try out between sessions.

Tags: children, social skills