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Group Counseling for Children Model.
Group counseling for children will be the most effective model to use for this situation because together the students can work together to build bonds and find alternative ways of handling the problems with negative encounters with other students. For children who have difficulties forming and maintaining relationships, being included in group counseling would give them opportunities to improve those relationship skills according to Henderson & Thompson (2011). Being in a group will help the students build an awareness of how others are feeling and perhaps provide insight into how the student is feeling about being not being able to communicate effectively with peers. .
The goal of a positive communication group is to decrease negative communication and interactions by increasing the comprehension of positive communication skills needed for healthy peer relationships and interactions. The group will identify and discuss what negative communication and interactions looks like; identify feelings associated with them; increase awareness of how negative and positive communication affects a person; build skills for positive communication; and learn how to develop healthy peer relationships through positive communication. .
Diversity Issues.
Henderson & Thompson (2011) state that groups may also be designed for children who are facing transitions in their lives such as divorce of parents, a death, or school problems including bullying. Especially with this diverse population of students, group counseling will be crucial to helping them understand that it is okay to different and that they do have support. .
The group will consist of 10 students age 6-9 years old from first, second, and third grade levels. A perfect size group is 8-12 students in a working group. By middle childhood, most children can appreciate that motives underlie behaviors and can reflect on others thoughts and feelings and recognize that others can do the same according to Hoglund and colleagues (2008), yet individual variability should be expected.
