Growing Together: Development of a Social Skills Group Intervention Program for Children with Developmental Disabilities and Delays

Children with developmental disabilities and delays often have decreased social skills that impact their ability to make and maintain friends or carry out meaningful interactions. This lack of social skills can lead to anxiety, depression, self-esteem issues, and further self-isolating behaviors. This doctoral capstone experience sought to fulfill the requirements of experiential learning through program development for social skills group intervention at Interactiv Children’s Therapy Services in Sharpsburg, Georgia. The capstone project developed, includes eight sessions made up of lessons, games, activities, and worksheets to aid in the education of skills and concepts required for being socially appropriate. The purpose of this capstone project is to create group programming for children with developmental disabilities and delays, to facilitate social skills development that aims to decrease self-isolating behaviors and increase self-esteem, confidence, friendships, and overall quality of life. The capstone student combined skilled observations, analysis of needs assessments, and research of evidence-based practice to develop the program. The completed program includes a presentation with educational materials, lesson plans, scripts, worksheets, a brochure for advertisement, social skills dictionary, pre and post-tests for children and parents, 26 goals, and a resource guide for possible assistance with funding. This project aims to help this population develop the required skills to socialize with confidence in hopes of increasing the overall quality of life of all participants.