Social skills of children and the young with intellectual impairment

Abstract

Social skills are viewed as a set of competencies which enable children and adolescents to establish and maintain social interactions with others, to be accepted by peers and to successfully and adaptively deal with social environment. When defining intellectual impairment social skills are considered a component of a wider concept of adaptive behavior. It is considered that deficits in knowledge and reasoning in children with intellectual impairment, manifested in low IQ, affect social development by delayed development of positive social skills which, in turn, lead to withdrawal and poorer relationships with peers. Hence these children need special training in order to improve these skills. The paper discusses different approaches to social skills improvement, but also some limitations regarding children with intellectual impairment. Although there are problems in behavior generalization and sustainability of the effects of these interventions, training in social skills remains one of central points in work with children and the young with intellectual impairment.

Socijalne veštine se posmatraju kao set kompetencija koje omogućavaju deci ili adolesecentima da uspostave i održe socijalne interakcije s drugima, budu prihvaćeni od vršnjaka i da se uspešno i adaptivno nose sa širim socijalnim okruženjem. Pri definisanju intelektualne ometenosti socijalne veštine se pojavljuju kao komponenta šireg koncepta adaptivnog ponašanja. Smatra se da deficiti u znanju i rezonovanju dece s intelektualnom ometenošću, manifestovani kroz nizak IQ, utiču na socijalni razvoj kroz kašnjenje razvoja pozitivnih socijalnih veština, koje zauzvrat, vode ka povlačenju i siromašnijim odnosima s vršnjacima. Stoga je ovoj deci najčešće potrebna posebna obuka kako bi te veštine poboljšala. U radu se razmatraju različiti pristupi unapređivanju ovih veština, ali i neka ograničenja kad je reč o deci s intelektualnom ometenošću. Bez obzira na problem generalizacije ponašanja i održavanja efekata ovih intervencija, obučavanje socijalnim veštinama ostaje jedna od centralnih tačaka u radu s decom i mladima s intelektualnom ometenošću.