Success in any of life’s endeavours normally involves the ability to interact with others. This requires some basic skills that facilitate communicating and interacting with other people.
Skills training encompasses a broad range of training in skills needed for functioning in everyday life including basic communication, assertiveness training, training in skills associated with a variety of social and vocational settings, and skills needed for personal care, independent living and community integration.
For some of us, this can be difficult and anxiety provoking.
Skills training is not aimed at reducing symptoms but rather at helping people live with their illness and its symptoms in a more functionally adaptive way and may result in being able to sustain a job..
Skills training is often essential for success in employment and can encompass training in skills such as making friends, having lunch time conversations, being able to set boundaries, saying no, and other everyday situations.
In addition to offering information, we all learn social skills through ongoing training and in-situ support.
- Supportive training, especially repeated practice via role playing, can be helpful.
- Complex behaviors like how to carry on a conversation may be broken down into smaller pieces such as introducing yourself, making small talk, and leaving a conversation.
- Discussion and practice of both verbal and nonverbal behaviors is essential.
- Training involves modeling the desired behaviour and experiential practice with feedback until the skill is understood and in the control of the individual.
- Behavior shaping involves systematic practice and reinforcement of the desired behavior until the criteria are met.
- Use of video recording so the person can view progress can be especially useful for this kind of training.
- Continued practice and reinforcement of skills is often needed to ensure the skill is maintained skill development can occur on the job with support and guidance using the points above.