Effects of Social Skills Training on Social Interactions of Children with Epilepsy

Background: Children with epilepsy have behavioral and social interactions problems more often than their peers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of social skills training on the social interaction of children with epilepsy. Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the influence of social skills training on the social interaction of children with epilepsy Methods: This was a 1 group quasi-experimental study with pretest and posttest design. Through convenience sampling, 40 children between the ages of 6 and 12 years (mean = 11.8 years, SD = 1.8) with epilepsy were selected from the Iranian epilepsy association from August to December 2014. The social skills rating system scale was used to collect data. Social skills training in 4 sessions’ were conducted for the group. Training consisted of 1 session per week. Paired-samples t-test was used for analyzing the pre- and postresults of intervention. The significance level was considered less than 0.05. Results: The mean score of the social interaction of children with epilepsy was increased after social skills training intervention. This difference between before and after intervention was statistically significant (P < 0.001). Therefore, social skills training had a positive influence on the social interaction of children with epilepsy. This positive change was observed in all subscale of social interactions such as cooperation, decisiveness, responsibility, and self-control. Conclusions: The results showed that social skills training due to increase social interaction could improve the social function and maybe reduce high-risk behaviors in children with epilepsy.