Tailoring Social Competence Interventions for Children with Learning Disabilities

Abstract

Challenges in social competence are common in children with Learning Disabilities (LDs), particularly those who present with co-occurring mental health challenges (LD ? MH). Social competence calls upon a complex set of skills, including social skills, perspective-taking abilities, and an understanding of the social environment. Successful enactment of these skills necessitates behavioral and emotion regulation, an area of weakness for many youth with LD ? MH. Using a mixed-method design, the present study assessed the efficacy of a social competence group program for children with LD ? MH (mean age = 11.4 years) in which group size, content, and structure are tailored to the child's level of emotion regulation, information processing abilities, and social competence goals. Quantitative measures completed by parents and coded behavioral observations completed pre-and post-treatment indicated significant gains in initiation and engagement in positive social interactions, foundational skills that support improvement in social competence. Qualitative interviews with parents, children and teachers suggested improvements in social self-concept, initiation, and emotion regulation. Tailoring treatment to the child's information processing and emotion regulation abilities, as well as 'in the moment' feedback, supported gains made and contributed to participants having a positive social experience. Directions for future research are discussed.

Pathways from neurocognitive vulnerability to co-occurring internalizing and externalizing problems among women with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder followed prospectively for 16 years

“…Executive functioning deficits have been shown to be concurrently associated with poor emotion regulation and self-control (Barkley, 1997; Fino et al, 2014; Vaughn, DeLisi, Beaver, & Wright, 2009; Zelazo & Cunningham, 2007). Similarly, children with learning problems, especially those with ADHD (Wiener, 2004), demonstrate lower levels of self-regulation than typically developing peers (Bauminger & Kimhi-Kind, 2008; Milligan, Phillips, & Morgan, 2015).…”

Does Anxiety Enhance or Hinder Attentional and Impulse Control in Youth With ADHD? An ERP Analysis

“…As noted above, although the large majority of youth with ADHD also have learning disabilities (Mayes et al, 2000), patterns found in the present study may differ in youth with ADHD without learning challenges. Specifically, youth with both learning difficulties and mental health challenges may have greater difficulties with both executive functioning and emotion regulation than youth without these comorbid challenges (Milligan, Badali, & Spiroiu, 2015; Milligan, Phillips, & Morgan, 2015), which may be an interesting area for future investigation. Finally, the grand-averaged waveforms for the present study (see Figures 1 and 2) suggest that within- and between-group differences may be present in other components, particularly the P2.…”

Information Fusion and Its Intelligent Sensing for Learning Intervention Model of Educational Big Data

“…According to the survey, before the learning intervention, the number of submitted assignments was 275, but after the intervention, the number of submissions reached 352, and the same change was found in self-evaluation and others' evaluation, which changed from 172 to 300, and self-evaluation changed from 233 to 349. In terms of discussion and communication, it was 72 in the first four weeks, but after the intervention, it reached 300, and learning resources changed from 95 to 370, a very significant improvement, and after investigating online testing, it was found that the first four weeks were only 125, but the use of the online testing system reached 315 after the intervention, and through these data, it can be shown that although the period of investigation is different, it can be seen from the improvement of students' learning programs that the intervention guidance is very helpful in serving students and can help them to complete their learning tasks effectively [27]. According to the examination of factual knowledge in Figure 8, our investigation divided it into six modules: memory, comprehension, application, analysis, evaluation, and creation, and according to the data, it is clear that in memory, there is a relatively significant improvement from 10 to 15 after the learning intervention; in analysis and evaluation creation, there is an improvement, but it is not significant, and in comprehension and application, the learning intervention has almost no effect.…”