Does Social Skills Training Benefit Children with ADHD?

00:00 Introduction and Brief History of Social Skills Training Research
00:42 Discussion of 2018 meta-analysis of research on social skills
01:50 Review of results of a subsequent 2019 meta-analysis
02:42 Results of a 2020 meta-analysis of social sills interventions for ADHD children and teens
06:05 Results of a 2018 meta-analysis focusing on interventions that used peers as part of the social skills training programs
09:08 Why don’t social skills training programs for ADHD children and youth work very well, if at all – Results of a study showing that the social difficulties do not arise from a skill deficit but from performance problems
10:54 Brief discussion of Amori Mikima’s new approach to social interventions for ADHD – Parent Friendship Coaching – it is based on the premise that ADHD is a performance disorder not a knowledge or skill disorder
12:32 Conclusion

This video addresses the important question of how effective social skills training is for improving the social relationship problems so commonly seen in children and teens with ADHD. It discusses the results of 4 different and recent meta-analyses of the research which yield rather discouraging results for this domain of impairment in ADHD. I then discuss the relatively more recent social intervention program by Amori Mikami that is based on the executive functioning theory of ADHD and that it is more of a performance than skill acquisition problem for those with ADHD. That approach, known as Parent Friendship Coaching, does seem to have some evidence for effectiveness.

References

Storebo, O. J. et al. (2018). Social skills training for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children aged 5 to 18 years. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD00...

Morris, S. et al. (2019). Interventions for Adolescents With ADHD to Improve Peer Social Functioning: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of Attention Disorders, 25(10). https://doi.org/10.1177/1087054720906514

Powell, L. A. et al. (2020). Psychoeducation Intervention Effectiveness to Improve Social Skills in Young People with ADHD: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Attention Disorders, 26(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/1087054721997553

Cordler, R. et al. (2018). Peer Inclusion in Interventions for Children with ADHD: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Biomed Research International. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/7693479

Aduen, P. et al. (2018). Social Problems in ADHD: Is it a Skills Acquisition or Performance Problem? Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 40, pp. 440-451. https://link.springer.com/article/10....