- Tier:
- Tier 1: Positive Mental Health Promotion
- Tier 2: Early Intervention and Cohort Specific Support
- Type of intervention: Support for diverse cohorts
- Strength of evidence: Level 4: Established evidence for program (supported by quality research evidence)
- Geographic location: Statewide
Program description
Secret Agent Society (SAS) is a small group spy-themed program delivered by trained facilitators. The program uses games to develop social skills and emotional regulation with children aged 8-12.
The program can be used with small groups of children presenting with a range of disorders including:
- high-functioning autism
- anxiety disorders
- ADHD
- anger management difficulties.
Skills targeted include:
- recognising emotions in themselves and others
- expressing feelings in appropriate ways
- coping with feelings of anger and anxiety
- communicating and playing with others
- coping with mistakes, transitions and challenges
- building and maintaining friendships
- solving social problems
- preventing and managing bullying and teasing.
Intended outcomes
- Develop parent and teacher awareness of emotions, emotional regulation, problem solving
- Children will learn to recognise emotions in themselves and others
- Children will have increased ability to cope with feelings of anger and anxiety
- Children will have increased ability to communicate and play with others and build and maintain friendships
- Children will cope better with mistakes and transitions and prevent and manage bullying and teasing
- Children will acknowledge their personal strengths
Program details
| Target audience |
|
|---|---|
| Program provider | Early Start Australia |
| Delivery mode |
*In regional areas all sessions can be delivered online, a combination of online and face-to-face can be used in instances where travel is limited for the facilitator. |
Implementation considerations
- Target population: Children aged 8-12, their parents and their teachers.
- Program adaptability: The program can be adapted to meet individual and cultural needs by using the expertise of trained facilitators.
- Staffing: A teacher will need to be present during delivery of the program.
- Training requirements: Teachers will be required to complete a two-hour training workshop. The SAS small group program includes nine 90-minute sessions delivered weekly (or eighteen 45-minute sessions), regular home missions (home practice), four 2 hour parent information sessions and a two hour teacher training workshop.
- Factors to consider: There is a minimum of 6 participants per small group program. Schools will be required to have IT facilities to support virtual presentations. Each child will require access to a computer either at home / school to access the digital platform.
- Australian context: The program was developed and evaluated through the Clinical Psychology program at the University of Queensland.
Cost
- Item cost: $5000+
- Detailed cost: For the small group program of 6 participants, the program costs $20,780 (inc. GST)
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