Social competence interventions for children with developmental vulnerability: A systematic review

Introduction: Developmental vulnerability is a term used to describe children who have not met their potential across physical, mental, social, emotional, and/or cognitive domains. Being identified as developmentally vulnerable is an indicator of wellbeing and can inform interventions and service provision. A developmentally vulnerable child may display social competence deficits—difficulties in their ability to connect with others. Approximately one in 10 Australian children have social competence deficits, which may negatively impact their development and lead to poor educational outcomes and quality of life. Objective: This review aimed to identify the characteristics of interventions used by early childhood professionals to improve social competence outcomes in young children identified as developmentally vulnerable. Method: A systematic review was conducted, which involved searches of Academic Source Complete, A+Education, CINAHL, ProQuest Nursing and Allied Health Database, and Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection. Key inclusion criteria were a focus on developmentally vulnerable or socially disadvantaged children below the age of 7 years. Results: The initial search produced 1866 articles. Following full-text screening, 29 articles were included in the final review. Findings suggest that supporting and upskilling key adults who support children and working with children in their everyday environments are critical elements of successful interventions to improve social competence in vulnerable children. Conclusion: Understanding the key characteristics of interventions to address social competence deficits is necessary to ensure early childhood professionals, including occupational therapists, can choose and implement evidence-informed interventions to improve the socia lcompetence of vulnerable children