The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 4 stresses the importance of offering all students an inclusive, quality education, so that they can develop necessary life skills, including academic and social skills. Students with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) not only have greater difficulties in their academic development, but they also have some social development limitations. It is therefore necessary to identify which strategies are effective in helping these students develop social skills. Previous research has noted that dialogical learning environments can contribute to promoting inclusion. This paper provides a literature review of interventions, based on social interaction and their impact on the social skills of students with disabilities. A literature search was performed of scientific databases (Web of Science, SCOPUS, PsycINFO and ERIC) to identify research that used dialogue and interaction to promote the development of the social skills of these students. Twenty-nine studies were selected that yielded improved results in the increase and quality of interactions and the promotion of social behaviours, such as initiations, participation, collaboration, social connection, self-regulation and self-image. Based on these results, it can be concluded that interaction-based interventions with an inclusive approach nurture the social skills of students with disabilities, in line with previous research.

Enhancing the quality of learning opportunities for students with disabilities and the learning level attained is a pending challenge. This challenge is especially relevant in the context of special schools, where the learning possibilities derived from interactions with others is limited. However, providing these students with a sufficient level of instrumental learning, such as literacy, and communicative and reasoning abilities is crucial for their subsequent educational and social opportunities. In this case study we analyse a special school that has implemented Dialogic Literary Gatherings with their students as a means to increase learning interactions within the group around the reading and debate of classical books. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the school principal and with a teacher of the transition to adult life course, and two focus groups were conducted with teachers–one with primary education teachers and one with secondary education teachers–and two focus groups with students–one with primary education students and one secondary education and transition to adult life students–. On the one hand, results show the characteristics of the Dialogic Literary Gatherings that allowed these students to participate and learn. On the other hand, several improvements have been observed. First, regarding instrumental learning, students increased their motivation for reading, and improved their communicative and reasoning abilities and in their reading proficiency. Second, regarding students' behavior, conflict has reduced, solidarity attitudes have increased, and they have acquired dialogic and argumentative habits. Finally, at the emotional level, they gained self-esteem and confidence and feel more empowered to make their voice heard.

Psychosis is a severe mental disorder traditionally treated from a purely biological approach, which often has led to a dehumanisation in psychiatric hospitals. To counteract this trend and aiming at tackling the disease with a more human approach, psychosocial interventions have increased. In this vein, interventions based on a dialogic approach, with specific features such as egalitarian dialogue, foster psychological and social transformations in different contexts. This review aims to analyse the clinical and social effects of psychological interventions based on these principles when treating patients with psychosis. A systematic review has been carried out, following PRISMA recommendations, in the Web of Science, Scopus and PsycInfo databases. After applying the inclusion criteria, thirteen empirical studies were selected and analysed, including a quality assessment. These studies show that when introducing a dialogic approach in treating psychosis, positive clinical and relational outcomes are obtained. Likewise, patients value positively these collaborative environments, where they feel listened and understood. Whereas dialogism emerges as a tool with potential benefits to tackle psychosis, more studies are needed to clearer determine the influence of specific dialogic features on improving psychotic patients’ mental health. La psicosis es un trastorno mental grave que tradicionalmente se ha tratado desde un enfoque puramente biológico, lo que a menudo ha conllevado una deshumanización en los hospitales psiquiátricos. Con el fin de contrarrestar esta tendencia y con el objetivo de abordar la enfermedad desde enfoque más humano, las intervenciones psicosociales han aumentado. En esta línea, las intervenciones basadas en un enfoque dialógico, con características específicas como el diálogo igualitario, fomentan transformaciones psicológicas y sociales en diferentes contextos. Esta revisión pretende analizar el impacto clínico y social de las intervenciones psicológicas basadas en principios dialógicos en pacientes con psicosis. Se ha realizado una revisión sistemática, siguiendo las recomendaciones PRISMA, en las bases de datos Web of Science, Scopus y PsycInfo. Tras aplicar los criterios de inclusión, se seleccionaron y analizaron trece estudios empíricos, además, se ha incluido una evaluación de la calidad de dichos estudios. Estos estudios muestran que, al incorporar un enfoque dialógico en el tratamiento de la psicosis, se obtienen resultados clínicos y relacionales positivos. De la misma manera, los pacientes valoran positivamente estos entornos de colaboración, donde se sienten escuchados y comprendidos. Aunque el dialogismo emerge como una herramienta eficaz para abordar la psicosis, se necesitan más estudios para determinar con mayor claridad la influencia de características dialógicas específicas en la salud mental de los pacientes.

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Mental health is being reframed as a fundamental right for all people, and mental health literacy is a tool that can enable patients to gain the knowledge, personal skills, and confidence to take action to improve their mental health, and their lives overall. This exploratory study analysed the power of dialogic literary gatherings (DLGs) to foster it in a group of patients with mental health disorders who gathered for 1 h once a week to share their readings of literature masterpieces. During the year-long study, a total of 140 patients participated in the DLGs in groups of 12 to 15 people. Results suggest that DLGs promoted the development of the participants’ mental health literacy and produced gains in emotional and social wellbeing by strengthening reading, speaking, and listening skills, fostering supportive relations, contributing to overcoming stigma, and enhancing agency. The transferability of DLGs to mental health care is discussed.

Academic learning and social skills are internalized through interactions and dialogue. However, students with disabilities have limitations at engaging in social interactions, affecting their educational experience. This case study analyses how a particular interactive learning environment, named Interactive Groups (IG), fosters quality interactions among students with disabilities. Five sessions of IG involving 20 students with disabilities in a special education setting were analysed. In total, 5831 interactions among the students were coded based on verbal and nonverbal communication. Besides, interviews with teachers and volunteers, and a focus group with students were conducted. Results show a high presence of attentional engagement towards the task, along with increased helping interactions. Benefits in terms of social skills and curricular development, fostering the acquisition of adaptative behaviours are identified.