Intervention in social skills of gifted children. A case study

Abstract

Giftedness represent a topic of growing interest in the scientific community. Within the characteristics of this condition are dyssynchronies, which represent inverse relations between the intelligence of the subject and internal or social aspects of his life. Studies have shown the need to intervene in the areas where dyssynchrony exists, being the early intervention essential to improve the lifestyle. This case study evaluated the improvement of the social skills in a gifted 6-year-old child, after using the fundamentals of cooperative learning and modeling, through the support of another 24-year-old patient with moderate intellectual disability, who served at times as frame of reference. A pre and post-test of the social skills of the patient was carried out by evaluating his psychopedagogist based on the social indicators of two instruments: the Observational Scale of Development (OSD) and the Batelle Development Inventory. Subsequently, a program of 7 intervention sessions was applied based on the variables of cooperative learning and learning by modeling from the cognitive-behavioral theory. The results showed statistically significant differences between the pre and post-test of the two tests applied. This suggests an improvement in the patient’s social skills and shows the effectiveness of this innovative intervention. In addition, we present evidence of the possibility of combining people with different diagnoses in the training of these competences, adding value to vicarious learning in psychotherapy.

Keywords

• altas capacidades
• aprendizaje cooperativo
• aprendizaje por modelado
• estudio de caso
• habilidades sociales
• terapia cognitivo-conductual