Short Communication
Youth social skills groups: A training platform for promoting graduate clinician interprofessional competence

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xjep.2016.04.004Get rights and content

Abstract

Despite growing recognition of the benefits of interprofessional (IP) education and practice, many graduate programs in allied health fields still do not target such skills directly in their training programs, nor assess students' IP competence. We describe a social skills group program that involves collaboration between graduate students and faculty in clinical psychology and speech-language pathology to deliver patient-centered care designed to improve children's social communication. Groups consist of 6–8 children who meet weekly for a 50-min session for 8–10 weeks; graduate student clinicians co-lead the groups following an evidence-based curriculum and meet weekly with faculty for group supervision. Qualitative feedback from graduate student clinicians indicates that the social skills program fosters their IP competence in the four key areas identified by the Interprofessional Education Collaboration Expert Panel (2011) – values and ethics, roles and responsibilities, communication, and teams and teamwork – while addressing a significant clinical need.

Section snippets

Format

Graduate students in psychology and speech-language pathology deliver the weekly social skills groups (SSG) jointly in an outpatient setting to children in grades 1 through 12 experiencing social skills difficulties and meet with licensed faculty from both disciplines before and after the group for supervision and planning.

Target audience

First and second year doctoral students in clinical psychology, and first year masters students in speech-language pathology.

Objectives

The primary training objective of the social skills program is to expose graduate students to a model of interprofessional (IP) collaborative practice centered around enhancing children's social communication. It was expected that graduate students who participate in the collaborative social skills group program will increase their IP competence in the four key areas identified by the Interprofessional Education Collaboration Expert Panel1 – values and ethics, roles and responsibilities,

Activity description

Social skills are verbal and nonverbal behaviors and cognitive processes that promote social communication, increase positive social interactions (e.g., cooperation), and decrease negative social interactions (e.g., aggression).2, 3 Social skills deficits may reflect the absence of a specific social skill, an inability to perform the essential steps to enact socially skilled behavior, or an inability to inhibit or control competing behavior that interferes with the performance of socially

Evaluation

As a pilot program evaluation, we obtained IRB approval to survey via email 11 graduate students (6 from speech-language pathology, 5 from psychology because one CPY student had since left the program) who had facilitated IP social skills groups in 2014–2015. Students were asked to answer the following questions: (a) What aspect of that [Social Skills Group] experience was the most beneficial to you?, (b) What aspect was the least beneficial to you?, and (c) Please list up to three things you

Impact

These evaluative comments provide preliminary evidence that the social skills training program promotes graduate student learning in the four core competencies for IP collaborative practice described by the IECEP1: values and ethics, roles and responsibilities, communication, and teams and teamwork. In fact, half of the students surveyed described being on an IP team as the “most beneficial” aspect of this training experience. Students also recognized challenges that are inherent to IP

Required materials

A structured interview form (available from authors) is required for the intake. One of a number of empirically supported social skills curricula, such as Skillstreaming8 or Resilience Builder9 provides the topics, techniques, and suggested materials for each session, as well as information to provide to families for generalization of skills addressed. For the social skills group itself it is necessary to secure a room suitable for a group of 6–8 children, preferably with space to sit and play

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