School-based social skills training to improve social adjustment of children with learning disabilities

为了向学校教师和家长传播学习障碍的知识，在宫崎县的不同地区举办了特别讲座。在此之后，通过PRS对2230名小学生进行了学习障碍筛查。对怀疑有学习障碍的儿童进行WISC-III、K-ABC、DAM等神经心理测试，确定有学习障碍的儿童67例。然后，对这些孩子的社会适应进行了一些评估，包括自我报告的社会技能、社会能力和孤独感。课堂老师还对孩子们的社交技能进行了评分。这些测量表明，与正常儿童相比，有学习障碍的儿童社交技能较差，孤独感较高，同伴接受得分较低。他们也表现出更多的内化问题行为和外化问题行为。因此，我们进行了为期三周的以学校为基础的团体社交技能培训。目标技能是“熟练倾听同伴”、“口头发起同伴”和“进入小组活动”。培训是基于上下文模型的。训练后，正常儿童和学习障碍儿童的孤独感、内化问题和外化问题得分均有所下降。此外，两组儿童的亲社会社交技能得分都有所提高。培训结束一年后进行随访评估，评估培训的维持效果。与基线评估相同的测量显示，培训收益相对较好地保持，这表明以学校为基础的团体社交技能培训对提高学习障碍儿童的社会适应是有效的。

In attempt to diffuse the knowledge about learning disabilities among school teachers and parents, special lectures were given at different areas in Miyazaki prefecture. After this, 2230 elementary school children were screened for learning disabilities by PRS. The children suspected to have learning disabilities were further inspected by WISC-III, K-ABC, DAM and some other neuropsychological tests, and 67 children were identified to have learning disability.Then, these children were given some assessments for their social adaptation which included self-reported social skills, social competence, loneliness. The classroom teachers also rated the children's social skills. These measures indicated that children with learning disabilities had poorer social skills, higher loneliness, lower peer acceptance scores than normal children. They also showed more internalizing problem behaviors and externalizing problem behaviors than their counterparts.Therefore, a school-based group social skills training was conducted for three weeks. The target skills were "skillful listening to peer", "verbal initiation to peer," and "entry into group activities." The training was based on the contextual model. After training, the scores of loneliness, internalizing problem, and externalizing problem declined for the normal children as well as the children with learning disabilities. In addition, both groups of children increased the scores of prosocial social skills.One year after the training, the follow-up assessments were conducted to evaluate the maintenance effect of this training. The same measures as baseline assessment revealed that the training gain was relatively well maintained, which suggested the effectiveness of school-based group social skills training to improve social adaptation of children with learning disabilities.