EXTENDING EVIDENCE-BASED SOCIAL SKILLS TRAINING TO YOUNG CHILDREN

NIMH
ID: 2R44MH077363-02
PI: JANEY MCMILLEN, PHD
TERM: 04/08 – 04/11

As children enter preschool and begin to navigate social situations outside the home, problem behaviors and related social difficulties may be more apparent, placing children at risk for difficult peer relationships. Without intervention, social and behavioral problems tend to persist and even escalate over time and can impact the development of child psychopathology and other negative outcomes. In contrast, positive social relationships serve as a protective factor, promoting more positive developmental outcomes for children. Prevention and treatment research supports the use of social skills training for improving children’s peer relations, social behavior, and emotional adjustment. Early intervention is critical in the prevention of severe social skills deficits and negative peer interaction patterns.

3-C ISD’s S.S.GRIN-EC (Social Skills Group Intervention for Early Childhood; children ages 4-6 years) is an adaptation of S.S.GRIN, a social skills training program for school-aged children. S.S.GRIN-EC is an innovative intervention program designed to enhance the social skills, emotional competencies, and social relationships of young children. S.S.GRIN-EC includes a skill-based curriculum aimed at enhancing social skills competencies through in-session activities, multi-media resources, and parent handouts that bridge the intervention setting with home efforts to promote social and emotional functioning.

In prior Phase I funding to develop S.S.GRIN-EC, feasibility testing results provided substantial support for continued development of the intervention, as well as essential constructive feedback that informed the direction of this development (e.g., adding more developmental considerations to the program; adding visual supports to help non-readers; decreasing reading level in parental materials). School- and community-based professionals and parents strongly endorsed the quality of the S.S.GRIN-EC intervention and recommended further development and testing.

In Phase II, the finalized S.S.GRIN-EC curriculum underwent a rigorous efficacy trial to evaluate the effects of the 12-session intervention. The sample consisted of 70 children who were randomly assigned to either S.S.GRIN-EC treatment (n = 35) or wait-list control (n = 35) conditions. Children who were randomly assigned to the wait list condition were offered a chance to participate in an S.S.GRIN-EC group at the conclusion of the study. Before and after the intervention, parents of children in both conditions completed behavioral rating scales on their child’s social and behavioral functioning and children participated in a brief individual assessment.

Efficacy of the intervention was examined by comparing pre- and post-intervention data. The results indicated children in the S.S.GRIN-EC groups showed greater improvement in their social skills and emotion regulation. The magnitude of these effects was moderate to large with a half to over three quarters standard deviation in improvement in functioning as a result of treatment. These findings support the value of implementing this intervention with young children who are experiencing social difficulties and are consistent with previous research indicating that young children can benefit from intervention in the social-emotional domain.

S.S.GRIN-EC is now available for purchase. To learn more or to purchase S.S.GRIN-EC, visit 3C Marketplace.

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DEB CHILDRESS, PHD

Chief of Research and Learning Content

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Childress obtained her PhD in psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to coming to 3C Institute, she served as a research associate and a postdoctoral fellow in the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill working on a longitudinal imaging study aimed at identifying the early markers of autism through behavioral and imaging methodologies. She has 19 years of autism research experience, during which she has examined the behavioral, personality, and cognitive characteristics of individuals with autism and their family members. Dr. Childress also has experience developing behavioral and parent report measurement tools, coordinating multi-site research studies, and collecting data from children and families. She has taught courses and seminars in general child development, autism, and cognitive development at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Expertise

  • autism
  • early development
  • behavioral measurement
  • integrating behavioral and biological measurement

Education

  • Postdoctoral fellowship, Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities (Institutional NRSA-NICHD), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • PhD, developmental psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • BS, psychology (minor in sociology), University of Iowa

Selected Publications

  • Elison, J. T., Wolff, J. J., Heimer, D. C., Paterson, S. J., Gu, H., Hazlett, H. C., Styner, M, Gerig, G., & Piven, J. (in press). Frontolimbic neural circuitry at 6 months predicts individual differences in joint attention at 9 months. Developmental Science.
  • Wassink, T. H., Vieland, V. J., Sheffield, V. C., Bartlett, C. W., Goedken, R., Childress, D. & Piven, J. (2008). Posterior probability of linkage analysis of autism dataset identifies linkage to chromosome 16. Psychiatric Genetics,18(2),85-91.
  • Losh, M., Childress, D., Lam K. & Piven, J. (2008). Defining key features of the broad autism phenotype: A comparison across parents of multiple- and single-incidence autism families. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 147B(4):424-33.
  • Wassink, T. H., Piven, J., Vieland, V. J., Jenkins, L., Frantz R., Bartlett, C. W., Goedken, R., … Sheffield, V.C. (2005). Evaluation of the chromosome 2q37.3 gene CENTG2 as an autism susceptibility gene. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 136, 36-44.
  • Barrett, S., Beck, J., Bernier, R., Bisson, E., Braun, T., Casavant, T., Childress, D., … Vieland, V. (1999). An autosomal genomic screen for autism. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 88, 609-615. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1096-8628(19991215)88:63.0.CO;2-L
  • Piven, J., Palmer, P., Landa, R., Santangelo, S., Jacobi, D. & Childress, D. (1997). Personality and language characteristics in parents from multiple-incidence autism families. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 74, 398-411.
  • Piven, J., Palmer, P., Jacobi, D., Childress, D. & Arndt, S. (1997). Broader autism phenotype: Evidence from a family history study of multiple-incidence autism families. American Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 185-190.