The Benefits Of Group Counseling

Social skills are defined as any skill facilitating interaction and communication with others. Social rules and relations are created, communicated and changed in verbal and nonverbal ways. This process of learning is called socialization. Students with special needs face many challenges in their lives some of which affects their ability to interact with others. The journal article, group counseling teaching for teaching social skills to students with special needs, explains the benefits of group counseling for both the students and the counselor. The article also explains strategies for dealing with children in a group setting. These techniques are some ways counselors teach the skills needed for social needs students to function in and out

Livneh, Wilson, and Pullo (2004) also agree with Johnson and Johnson's findings. They explained that group counseling gives counseling gives individuals the opportunity to learn from one another and counseling individuals the opportunity to learn from one another and a chance to generate solutions together. Groups also provide a safe place for emotional release. Within a group setting children can learn that others face similar situations, which helps to lessen anxiety or fears that they may have. Groups also are the perfect environment to practice social skills building and allow children to build a social network. Another benefit of group counseling is that children learn to cope with their disabilities and the limitation that accompany it. There has also been a push within the school to integrate students with disabilities into the general population, hence it’s necessary to help them become adjusted to their environment. Adolescence is a critical time within children social lives, according to Givon and Court (2003). It is suggested that the earlier intervention will become well- adjusted and socially competent individuals. If an individual. If an individual cannot reach social competence, social isolation will become worse over time. Group counseling has also proven to be effective in developing a wide range of interpersonal skills in children at an elementary school level. The article

It has been proven that group counseling makes it possible for school counselors to meet the needs of every student. However, groups counseling between children and adolescents is very different from group counseling with adults. It goes on to explain that groups should be structured homogeneously for gender, because when there is a mixture of the sexes they tend not to self-disclose easily. Which makes it difficult to build trust that can help them to become cohesive. It has been suggested that groups at the elementary school level should be kept small. Children don't like the notion of being singled out with a group setting because they already feel stigmatized by their peers. It was then recommended that the group setting because integrated with socially accepted children. This elevates the status of the group within the school. Another benefit is that children with social skills deficits will learn appropriate behavior from other children. It is also believed that if the group is advertised as an activity group, the negative backlash that a social skills group would bring is