New approaches to social skills training: Blended group interventions for girls with social communication difficulties.
Blended online-plus-face-to-face PEERS works for teen girls with Turner syndrome and lifts social knowledge and initiations.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Seven teenage girls with Turner syndrome joined an eight-week social skills club. Half of each lesson happened on Zoom. The other half met in person at the clinic.
The club used the PEERS lessons: how to start a talk, swap info, and leave a chat. Parents watched online too so they could coach later.
What they found
Every girl came to every session. After eight weeks the girls knew more social rules and started more talks with peers.
Parents said the girls used the skills at school and home. No one dropped out, so the mix of online and face-to-face felt easy to finish.
How this fits with other research
Stephens et al. (2018) tried PEERS with peer helpers for students with autism. Their gains were small, while Jeanne’s girls saw medium gains. The gap looks like a clash, but the 2018 study used only in-person lessons and typical boys and girls. The 2021 girls had Turner syndrome and got half their lessons online, so the blended format may pack more punch for this group.
Barthelemy et al. (1989) trained two elementary classmates to prompt isolated girls at recess. Both studies raised social starts, showing the idea works from grade school to high school.
Bonete et al. (2015) taught workplace problem-solving to adults with Asperger syndrome in group lessons. Both papers show short group BST can lift social skills across ages and diagnoses.
Why it matters
If you serve girls with Turner or other social-communication needs, you can run PEERS without a full in-person slot. Offer the lessons on Zoom first, then meet face-to-face to practice. The online part lets parents watch and learn the coach role without driving to clinic every week. Start with a small group, keep the eight-week pace, and track social starts before and after to see the change.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Social skills group interventions are increasing popular for children with social communication disorders but there is little evidence of their acceptability or effectiveness when delivered online. We report a feasibility study that adapted the Program for Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS) to provide an intensive 8 week online delivery to female adolescents, blended with some face-to-face group meetings. A systematic multiple-case series design with case tracking was developed, comprising a 3-month baseline, a 2-month intervention and a 3-month follow-up period. Seven adolescents with Turner Syndrome and social communication difficulties (17-20 years) took part, together with their parents. Acceptability and feasibility were assessed by means of qualitative feedback and attendance rates. Changes in social adaptation were tracked using measures of social knowledge, social behaviour and autistic symptoms, plus anxiety and self-esteem. Attendance rates were consistently high and there were no dropouts. Qualitative feedback indicated the online format was acceptable to both the participants and their families. Objective outcome measures showed significant gains in social knowledge and improved social initiations from measures made during the pre-intervention baseline. This proof-of-principle pilot study demonstrated blended social skills interventions are both feasible and acceptable to adolescent females with social communication difficulties. LAY SUMMARY: Social skills groups are increasingly popular for children with social communication disorders, but there is little evidence for their use online. Psychological treatments that require weekly face-to-face sessions for both children and their parents are associated with practical difficulties, disrupting family life and school commitments. Our study, is the first to use a blended online and face-to-face social skills training program for adolescent girls with social communication difficulties. We showed that this new approach to treatment was acceptable to families and has a positive and significant impact on participant's social performance and social knowledge. This new treatment approach may increase the accessibility of treatment for adolescents and young adults, especially those with social communication difficulties. Autism Res 2021, 14: 1061-1072. © 2021 The Authors. Autism Research published by International Society for Autism Research published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2021 · doi:10.1002/aur.2495