Social Skills Training in the Scholar Context - An Experience Report

Abstract

This experience report describes an intervention based on the Social Skills Training (THS) performed with children of the 3rd year of elementary school in a public school in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The aim of THS was to develop a repertoire of healthier behaviors among students, as the main complaints of the school referred to problems of behavior, communication and interaction between the peers, which affected the learning process. Participants included 10 children (ages 7-9 years). The activities were previously planned and lasted for three months, distributed in eight meetings, with weekly frequency of one and a half hours each. The topics covered psychoeducation, muscle relaxation and diaphragmatic breathing techniques, constructive feedback, role-play, and problem solving. The results show that the activities provided the participants with some positive behavioral changes, such as the establishment of rules organized by the students themselves for a good relationship, the learning of relaxation techniques and the improvement of social skills developed throughout the activities. The intervention provided an approximation of Psychology to the school field, in order to invest in interventions in this context, since social skills are recognized as a protection factor in child development.