CC BY 4.0 DEED Attribution 4.0 InternationalVasileiadis, IliasDimitriadou, IoannaKoutras, SpyrosVleioras, Georgios2024-02-262024-02-262024-02-252023-04-29Vasileiadis, I., Dimitriadou, I., Koutras, S. and Vleioras, G. (2024) ‘The development of social competence in students with General Learning Difficulties in early primary grades: The necessity of psychological support programmes in schools’, Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 24(3), pp. 578–596. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-3802.12653.https://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/handle/20.500.12289/13685https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-3802.12653From Wiley via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: received 2023-04-29, rev-recd 2023-09-06, accepted 2024-02-08, epub 2024-02-25Article version: VoRPublication status: PublishedStudents with General Learning Difficulties present low levels of social competence. In order to increase them, students participate in school psychological support programmes. There are no research data available in Greece regarding social competence in students with General Learning Difficulties in the first grades of elementary school. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the efficiency of an intervention programme, which focused on strengthening their social competence, in the first grades of primary school. The levels of social competence of the students were evaluated before and after the implementation of an 8‐month social empowerment programme, following a mixed‐methods approach with the use of semi‐structured interviews and observation in the school context. The participants were 21 students with General Learning Difficulties, 18 education professionals, whose classes the 21 students attended, together with the 21 parents of these students (one parent per student). The results showed that the social competence of the participants was low before and that it increased after their participation in the intervention programme. In addition, girls had higher social competence than boys both before and after their participation in the intervention programme. These results highlight the benefits of classroom intervention programmes for children with General Learning Difficulties.578–596Licence for VoR version of this article: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/© 2024 The Authors. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of National Association for Special Educational Needs. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/General Learning DifficultiesSocial CompetenceIntervention Programmearticle2024-02-26