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Culturally Sensitive InterventionsSocial Skills Training with Children and Parents From Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds
Abstract
The rapid demographic changes in the United States pose a challenge to educators and practitioners in providing services that are sensitive to the needs of children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Social competence is paramount to function successfully in school and community environments. Misinterpretation of culturally linked behavior places these children in conflict with expectations for social behaviors between home and school. This article provides an overview of cultural influences on social behaviors of children from diverse backgrounds and suggests practical applications for developing and implementing social skills training programs for these children and their parents.
... But this may not work well in Hong Kong, where there are no established norms for how much eye contact is appropriate between children and unfamiliar adults. Eye contact can even show disrespect in some Asian cultures (Rivera & Adkinson, 1997) The challenges that developmental disabilities present for children and their families are sometimes culture specific too. For example, developmental disabilities can lead to problems in school, and those in turn can lead to stress in any family (Ho, Yeh, McCabe, & Lau, 2012;Mah & Johnston, 2012;McIntyre, Blacher, & Baker, 2006). ...
Research Findings: The objective of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of Incredible Years Basic Parent Training (IYPT Basic) in a community clinic setting in Hong Kong. IYPT Basic is a Western program developed to promote children’s academic, social, and emotional regulation skills and to reduce conduct problems among typically developing children. The program has not been tested in non-Western cultures, where the challenges for parents of children with developmental disabilities can be different. The IYPT Basic was adapted slightly to accommodate cultural characteristics in Hong Kong. Parents of 52 preschoolers with developmental disabilities were randomly assigned to either the IYPT Basic or a waitlist control. Parent and child dyads were assessed before and after the 12-week intervention/waitlist period via self-reports and spouse/kin reports and videotape coding by observers blind to the intervention/waitlist status. Significant intervention benefits included (a) increase in positive and reciprocal parent –child interaction, (b) reduction in parental stress, and (c) decrease in oppositional behavior among the children. The parents’ attendance, satisfaction, and homework compliance was high. Practice or Policy: IYPT Basic, when implemented with cultural sensitivity, can be effective for —and well received by—Chinese parents of preschoolers with developmental disabilities in a community setting.
Recent conversations in behavior analysis have increasingly centered around improving compassionate care and cultural responsiveness practices in the field. Behavior analytic graduate programs are uniquely positioned to bring these conversations to the forefront for future generations of behavior analysts. If graduate students are offered education and training in cultural responsiveness and compassionate soft skills, they may be better positioned to serve their future clients. Faculty can prepare to teach and mentor students in this way by first engaging in self-assessment and reflection on these issues, and then by incorporating them into the graduate curriculum through knowledge and skill-building (e.g., readings, role plays, case scenarios). Faculty can also model compassion through thoughtful course design and interactions with students. Areas for future research are also discussed.
This article reports on a study that investigated the importance of children possessing personal/social skills when starting kindergarten, from teachers' and parents' perspectives. The study involved a sample of 16 kindergarten teachers and 63 parents of kindergarten children from government schools in one of the six education districts within the Tasmanian Department of Education. Data was collected through mailed questionnaires, which utilised 22 personal/social skills sourced from the Early Social Skills brochure (Department of Education, 2002a) and the Kindergarten Development Check (Department of Education, 2003). Results from the study support the importance of socially preparing children for the kindergarten environment, with emphasis being placed upon children commencing kindergarten with many of the specified personal/social skills. It was revealed that there was a lack of congruence between teachers' and parents' perceptions in respect of some items, in the areas of ‘attitude to learning’ and ‘social communication’. This indicates that there may be inconsistent expectations between home and school which have the potential to impact negatively upon a child's personal/social development.
Latino immigrant origin children’s academic experience in classrooms have been underrepresented in the current literature. Guided by the systems framework for understanding social settings (Tseng & Seidman, 2007), this study utilizes a unique research method, combining participatory photography and photo-elicitation interviews to understand and describe low-income Latino immigrant origin children’s experience of their elementary classrooms – including their academic engagement, academic topics and activities, peers and teachers, and physical environment of classrooms with which they engage on a daily basis. Specifically, this study explores aspects of classroom experiences that are salient to students, with a specific focus on the ways in which these students describe their academic engagement in relation to the resources and challenges they experience in their daily lives in elementary classrooms. In this study, I use qualitative inquiry, including the collection of children’s visual (via photographs) and verbal (via interview) expression of their classroom experiences. Analysis of photographs and interview transcripts is geared toward generating hypotheses about how children interact with their classrooms (e.g., activate resources, use materials, build relationships) and how that interaction may influence their relational and behavioral engagement.
Cultural beliefs, values, and norms influence the frequency and display of behavior. Accordingly, broadening the operational definitions of social and emotional competencies and establishing the equivalence of measures are two necessary steps to ensure that current assessment tools are sensitive to cultural and contextual variations. The purpose of this article is twofold: first, to examine the risks associated with narrow definitions or assumptions of invariance, particularly as each pertains to the assessment of social and emotional learning (SEL) competencies among Black students in urban schools; and second, to consider the utility of prototype analysis in advancing transformative SEL research and practice.
The goal of this project was to reduce parent-child conflict and promote intergenerational harmony among Central American families who had experienced long-term parent-child separations in the immigration process. Through combining intensive case study of six families with experimental design, we show how a series of four workshops for immigrant parents and their recently immigrated adolescent children could reduce parent-child conflict and emotional distance by scaffolding intergenerational communication. Families were randomly assigned to one of three groups: (1) both parents and adolescent children attended workshops (full experimental group); (2) only adolescent children attended workshops (partial experimental group); and (3) no-treatment control group. The full experimental group achieved the greatest changes in communication patterns: In the posttest, parents and children in this group were more able to express negative aspects of separation and reunion; they also showed more understanding of each other's perspective.
Social skills are essential for youth well-being. Impaired social functioning, due to either acquisition or performance-based skill deficits, is associated with a range of social and emotional problems in childhood and adolescence. This chapter provides an overview of social skill training (SST) interventions designed for youth. The chapter identifies the core target skills, describes training components, and reviews several variations and implementation considerations based on the type and severity of skills deficits or other important child characteristics. A broad review of the evidence base for SST is provided, followed by examples of empirically supported intervention programs for specific populations, including youth with autism spectrum disorder, developmental delays and intellectual disabilities, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, social anxiety disorder, depression, and conduct problems and aggression.
This mixed methods descriptive study is an effort to describe whether “The Talk” (regarding behavior during interactions with police) occurs equally in African American, Latino, and White families and to determine the content of these conversations. A sample of 307 university students, in three areas of Texas, were surveyed with closed and open-ended items. Data were analyzed quantitatively using descriptive statistics and t-test difference between proportion analyses and qualitatively through a process of coding to identify patterns and themes in the open-ended responses. The findings reveal that a majority (74%) of the youth surveyed have had “The Talk” with their parents/guardians, and this influences their perceptions of the police. Unsurprisingly, African Americans were found to be more fearful and distrustful of law enforcement than Whites and Latinos. Latinos shared many similar, more positive, perceptions of law enforcement with Whites in contrast to African Americans. Whites, however, evidenced the most faith in law enforcement and in the idea that their complaints about police misconduct would attain results.
How do school professionals distinguish between social, communication, and behavioral differences observed in typically developing English language learners (ELLs) and those ELL students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)? Informed consideration is necessary to avoid inaccurate identification and to ensure appropriate supports are provided; however, little attention has been paid to this topic. Amongst Latino children in particular, ASD is thought to be under identified. This discrepancy may result in limited access to critical intervention services that could improve the functioning of the individual across the lifespan. Differences in language acquisition, social communication, pragmatic speech, socialization, behaviors, and nonverbal communication may be observed in typical ELLs as well as students with ASD. This article will provide a comparison of manifestations of normative second language acquisition (SLA) in ELL students and social communication deficits and behaviors associated with ASD. Practitioners will gain increased understanding of these subtle functional differences. Recommendations for specific assessment procedures are included as well as recommendations for future research.
40 socially isolated children selected from 14 3rd- and 4th-grade classrooms were exposed to 1 of 4 social skills training conditions: coaching, modeling, mixed abbreviated modeling and coaching, and control. Social isolation was defined as low scores received from same-sex peers on 2 sociometric rating scales that measured how much children like to play and work with each other. Ss were also characterized as being peer-oriented or non-peer-oriented on the basis of the Peer Preference Test. Dependent measures consisted of 2 sociometric rating scales, 3 peer nomination measures, and 4 categories of behavioral observations (initiating and receiving positive and negative peer interaction). Generally speaking, coaching and modeling were equivalent procedures for teaching social skills to Ss, as measured by both sociometric and behavioral indices. The abbreviated combination of coaching and modeling did not add to the effects achieved by coaching or modeling in isolation. Also, the peer orientation factor proved to be only a relatively weak modulator of responsiveness to social skills training. The selection of appropriate outcome measures in social skills training research is discussed. (39 ref)
the study of Black adolescents is considered in its historical context
informs us of the rich legacy of scholarship on Black adolescents in the form of the American Council on Education's studies on Negro youth personality development that were undertaken in the 1930's and 1940's / draws inferences from these studies for policy and future research (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Best practices in preschool social skills training
- S N Elliot
- C N Racine
- R T Bruce
- McFall, R.
The language of African American learners: Effective assessment and instruction programming for children with special needs
- H Seymour
- T Champion
- J Jackson
Behavioral disorders in the context of families
- B Harry