The 37 skill-building interventions that met more than once per week showed greater improvements in social competence than those that met less frequently.

Find ways to increase the frequency with which you provide skill-building sessions. This may involve altering the structure of the lessons so they can be delivered more frequently. If you are in a school setting, this may require additional negotiation and relationship-building with administration – and ultimately may not be feasible. But, keep in mind that some skill-building lessons can be brief and can be delivered in the context of almost any other activity, whether academic, therapeutic, or recreational. Our recommendations below provide some ideas for how to build in more frequent contact given the possible constraints.

More frequent sessions provide opportunities for repeated reinforcement of skills, allow for participants to use and see models of good interpersonal skills regularly, and may keep participants more focused on their social interactions. Social behavior is complex. There are subtleties to social interaction that make learning and internalizing social skills difficult. Providing instruction on a schedule that allows skills to build on each other rapidly may aid in the acquisition of new skills and promote lasting behavior change.

Assess Feasibility

Program setting.
Consider any constraints presented by the intervention’s setting. If you are in a school, determine if there is flexibility in the schedule to increase frequency and build support for the change among administration and teachers.
Program dosage.
Document the frequency of contact your intervention has with participants. Does it vary by type of participant or the duration of the intervention? Are there points where contact is less frequent?
Delivery model.
Determine whether you could reduce the number of days between sessions, or provide additional programming in between sessions. Staff and location availability are two primary concerns.
Reinforcement opportunities.
Are there opportunities outside of the sessions to reinforce skills, without having to increase frequency of the sessions themselves?

Take Action

Consider the following courses of action depending on the results of your feasibility assessment:

Increase the frequency with which you engage with participants, by either reducing the time between sessions or by offering related programming in between sessions. For example, hosting family events to provide participants with opportunities to practice skills, or helping teachers to infuse mini-social skills lessons into group work during class.
Encourage participant use of skills outside of the program. Opportunities for practice could include homework assignments, socializing opportunities, or journals where participants document how they employed skills in real life.
Slowly build in more frequent sessions. Try increasing the frequency of sessions for a smaller portion of your participants, or for a portion of the intervention. Document what worked well and the barriers, and consider expanding the approach to the full intervention as appropriate.

Breadcrumb

Increase Frequency of Skill-building Sessions

Outcome

Social Competence

Intervention Family

Skill-Building Interventions