Social Skills Training and Children

[Page 3241]Social skills training typically involves a small group of children being taught skills to help them overcome the social problems that they have. Usually, these social problems do not occur in isolation but in the context of more serious psychopathology. Many common childhood disorders affect an individual’s social functioning, and thus, social skills training is recommended in the context of a more complex set of interventions aimed at improving the functioning of children. This entry defines the different types of social skills that need to be addressed in social skills training and the types of disorders that affect social functioning. It then briefly reviews the approaches traditionally employed to train in social skills and the shortcomings of these approaches. Last, the entry briefly discusses ...