| The quality of a child's social skills and interactions can be predictive of later development as well as overall functioning as an adult. Numerous studies have examined the impact of training groups for children showing problems with social skills, with the goal of increasing social competence. Results have indicated that the more involved a parent is in treatment, the better able the child is to generalize the skills learned to daily life. The extent of parent involvement and the subsequent impact on children's social skills was the topic of the current study.;This study examined the use of an enhanced parent-training manual that mirrored the social skills training curriculum for children, thus teaching parents the same vocabulary and techniques that the children learned. This group was compared to a no-parent training group and a standard parent-training group in which parents learned behavior modification techniques. Forty-six families were involved in this study over the course of two years, with 18 participating in the enhanced condition, nine in the standard training condition, and 19 in the no-parent training condition.;It was hypothesized that the enhanced parent training would prove more effective both statistically and clinically than the standard parent training, which would prove more effective than the no-parent training. It also was hypothesized that children's social skills would improve regardless of condition. Results supported the second hypothesis but not the first. This finding suggests children improved during social skills training, but did not support the conclusion that parent training would enhance the outcome. |
