Social skills groups can help children, teenagers, and adults alike to learn, grow and maintain good communication and significant relationships. Many individuals struggle with social skills. Social skills take many forms, and even after the social skills group ends, the benefits can last a lifetime.
Improving Communication Skills
Most people—and especially the parents of children who attend an age-appropriate social skills group—find that after they spend a prolonged period of time attending a group, their social skills, including their ability to start and maintain conversations, significantly improve. Other aspects of communication skills will also improve, including the ability to interpret body language and demonstrate empathy. Often, people will meet friends they spend time with outside of their social skills group as well.
Improving Problem Resolution Skills
Whenever people engage in a group environment, conflict will inevitably arise. In a social skills group, individuals will learn tools to help them manage conflict and resolve it productively. One example might be asking the group to work together to create a plan to accomplish a task: the perfect scenario for anyone hoping to learn how to decide between ideas. This can include compromising, voting, or even rock-paper-scissors. The point is that everyone will have to contribute productively to accomplish the group’s goals while therapists help guide the process.
Developing Self-Confidence
Most people who struggle with social skills really do want to interact with others and build friendships, but they just don’t have the self-confidence to do it. After a lifetime of not knowing how to approach others, they may lose hope, which can make this difficulty hard to overcome.
But by practicing these skills in a safe space with others under the guidance of therapists either online or in person, individuals can learn how to approach and interact with others. After practicing these skills in a social skills group, they can build the confidence to practice them with others. This can help them to develop meaningful relationships, which is a skill that will help them throughout their life.
Reducing Social Anxiety
One of the hardest social skills to develop is learning to relax. After feeling like you have failed in a social setting, it is easy to reinforce this by telling yourself that you will be embarrassed every time you even consider engaging with a group setting. But, by joining a social skills group, you will be provided a positive group experience that will help counteract any poor experiences from your past. This can help you to relax; by reducing your social anxiety, you will soon be able to enjoy group settings—certainly a lasting benefit.
Final Thoughts
Social skills groups offer a number of benefits that can last long after the group stops meeting. These benefits include improving communication and problem-solving, building self-confidence, and reducing social anxiety—powerful benefits that can last a lifetime.
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