3-C Family Services

Group Therapy

Therapy Groups

Social Skills Groups

Peer relationship problems are social in nature. It is the quality of the interactions between the child and his or her peers that is problematic. Understandably, group interventions are often the treatment of choice.

In a group, children are able to learn and practice social skills in vivo with other same-aged children. Peer interactions in a group environment occur in real time so that group leaders can directly intervene with problem situations and reinforce positive changes as they occur. At the same time, a group setting is more structured and safe than real-life peer settings, so that fear of rejection and teasing is decreased and willingness to try new social behaviors is increased. Also, children receive immediate, constructive feedback from peers.

3-C Institute for Social Development (3-C ISD) is a provider of scientifically validated assessment and intervention tools for parents and professionals in the area of children’s peer relationships and social development. 3-C ISD has designed curricula that are widely applicable to a variety of peer problems and age groups.

Groups are designed to build children’s social skills and social relationships with peers. The overarching goals of group are to:

build basic behavioral and cognitive social skills,
reinforce prosocial attitudes and character traits, and
build adaptive coping strategies for social problems.

As children’s social skills improve and they gain practice and reinforcement for positive social behavior, their self-esteem and self-confidence increase. Greater confidence enables children to try new social behaviors with peers outside the group. In this way, the skills learned throughout the group can be generalized to the relationships in the regular peer group.

Communication and cooperation skills are essential within any social relationship. When children are able to communicate and cooperate well with others, their confidence rises. In turn, children who are more confident are better able to cope with social adversity, such as teasing and rejection.

A number of basic social skills are taught and practiced throughout all the curricula, including:

communication (verbal and nonverbal),
cooperation,
impulse control,
perspective taking,
conflict management, and
initiation of play/conversation.

Children and adolescents are encouraged to set appropriate goals and assess the consequences of their actions. Prosocial attitudes and character traits, such as respect, responsibility, perseverance, empathy, and self-control, are emphasized throughout the group sessions. Negative assumptions about oneself and others are directly combated. The group sessions address specific social problems, such as being teased and rejected by others and peer pressure. The group leaders work with the children to develop more appropriate methods by which to cope with these stressful social experiences.

The 3-C Program emphasizes not only social behavior, but also cognitive and emotional components of relationships. Each of these components is an integral part of social interactions that can either enhance or disrupt the quality of a relationship. Group interventions strive to increase children’s awareness of how their thoughts and feelings can interfere with their social behavior and, thereby, improve their control over their behavior. By weaving together social skills from a more holistic perspective, including behavior, cognition, and emotion, the overall effectiveness of the intervention can be enhanced.

The professional may want to augment group therapy with individual therapy. Individual sessions with children who also attend group can be particularly helpful for reinforcing progress made in group and privately increasing children’s awareness of their social difficulties in getting along with peers.