Normative and descriptive analysis of preschool free play social interaction rates

Target Selection of Social Skills for Children

The present studies represent a preliminary test of the template-matching procedure as a means of empirically identifying critical social behaviors for individual client children. Study 1 assessed the consistency with which female child informants identified behaviors they preferred in their friends (template behaviors). Study 2 validated these template behaviors on the same subjects by manipulating the behaviors in nonscripted confederates and assessing the impact of the manipulations on behavioral and sociometric measures. It was found that: (1) subjects were consistent when identifying most preferred template behaviors; (2) subjects reciprocated template behaviors in kind; (3) different patterns of acceleration of template behaviors in confederates were associated with collateral increases in untrained behavior in subjects and in subject responsivity to confederates; and (4) sociometric ratings obtained from some subjects increased, but these increases were not statistically significant. Implications of these findings for future development of the template-matching procedure are discussed.

Interaction among preschoolers with and without disabilities: effects of across-the-day peer intervention

We examined the effects of a peer-mediated intervention package that taught typically developing children to be more aware of communicative attempts to classmates with disabilities, to use a small set of facilitative strategies ("Stay, play, talk"), and to distribute strategy use across the school day. A multiple baseline design across subjects was instituted with two cohorts of preschool children. Following baseline observations, a total of 8 target children with moderate development disabilities were eventually paired with trained peers who received "buddy training." One trained peer were taught facilitative strategies and encouraged to use them during classroom activities, consistent improvements in social interaction on the part of the trained peers and target children were demonstrated. Similar or more frequent interactions were demonstrated when trained peers were reassigned to different target children during generalization probes. In addition, treatment effects were revealed when comparing sequential analyses applied to the specific communicative behaviors across experimental conditions, in changes in target children's sociometric ratings, and in social validity judgments of videotapes from before and after treatment. This peer intervention approach has promise for improving the communicative interaction and social integration of children with disabilities attending inclusive preschools.

Analysis of Successful Initiations of Three Children With Hearing Loss Mainstreamed in Kindergarten Classrooms

The communicative interactions of three mainstreamed children who are deaf or hard of hearing (deaf/HOH) were investigated. These children were matched with a classmate who had normal hearing (NH) according to chronological age, sex, race, and socioeconomic status (SES). All subjects were white females approximately 5 years of age. The subjects were videotaped while involved in normal classroom activities. The videotaped interactions were coded for: (a) activity, (b) play level, (c) partner, (d) interactive status, and (e) mode of communication.

Dyad interactions were analyzed for average length, frequency, and total number of interactions. The children’s interactions varied by child and classroom setting. Results regarding the success of initiations were that one subject who is deaf initiated less often and was more successful than her peer with NH; the other subject who is deaf initiated less often and was less successful than her peer with NH; and the subject who is HOH initiated more often and was less successful than her peer with NH. Factors found to affect the success of initiations were the number of children involved and the accompaniment of actions and/or gestures with spoken or signed communication. These results suggest that children who are deaf/HOH often are less successful at initiations than children with NH, but the success of the initiations by children who are deaf/HOH may depend on more variables than past research has led us to believe (Arnold & Tremblay, 1979; Lederberg, Ryan, & Robbins, 1986; Levy Shiff & Hoffman, 1985; Vandell & George, 1981). Possible factors that contribute to interactions and successful initiations by children who are deaf/HOH are discussed.

Conversational responsiveness of speech- and language-impaired preschoolers

The purpose of this study was to describe preschoolers' conversational responsiveness in an integrated classroom setting. Variables of primary interest were the types of responses as a function of the conversational partner. The children were categorized according to language ability: normally developing, marginal (children previously diagnosed as language or speech impaired, but now functioning within the normal range), language impaired (LI), and speech impaired (SI). They were observed during free play. Differences in response types were apparent between groups with both adult and peer partners. LI and SI children were ignored by their peers and responded less often when a peer initiated to them. Hence, they participated in proportionately fewer peer interactions. These results suggest that peer interaction difficulties may be concomitant consequences of early speech and language impairments. Clinical implications for verbal interactive skill intervention, particularly with peers in classroom settings, are discussed.

The Social Interactive Coding System (SICS)

The Social Interactive Coding System was designed to describe the continuous verbal interactions of preschool children as a function of play areas, addressees, script codes, and play levels. The targeted verbal dimension is assertiveness/responsiveness, indexed by initiations versus responses for conversational turns. SICS can be completed in a minimum amount of time, without access to special equipment or time-consuming transcription. It provides a helpful supplement to conventional communication assessment tools, for the purposes of determining treatment goals, describing baseline and treatment progress.

Similarities and differences in behaviour between mentally handicapped and normal preschool children during play

When 12 normal preschool children and 12 mentally handicapped children of similar mental age were individually observed during peer group play, more similarities than differences were found in the incidence of 28 behaviours. However, the behaviours for which significant differences were found included those likely to be most relevant to social acceptance. Mutual social involvement of normal and handicapped children during integrated play may require not only attention to the constitution of the group but also manipulation of the conditions and environment.

Increasing handicapped preschoolers' peer social interactions: cross-setting and component analysis

The purposes of our study were: (a) to train a set of observationally determined social behaviors via peer initiation; (b) to determine if effects generalized across classroom settings and to directly intervene if generalization did not occur; and (c) to analyze components of the peer-initiation intervention. After baseline, nonhandicapped preschool children (confederates) were taught to direct social initiations to the three handicapped preschool-aged students. Teachers prompted the confederates to engage the students in social interaction when necessary and rewarded the confederates with tokens. Confederates' initiations to the students resulted in increased frequencies of positive social interaction. There was no generalization to other classroom settings, and the intervention was subsequently implemented in a second and third classroom. Next, the confederates' token reinforcement system was withdrawn, with no apparent deleterious effects on the confederates' or students' social interactions. When teachers substantially reduced their prompts to the confederates, students' social interactions decreased. Finally, reinstatement of teacher prompts resulted in increases in the confederates' social initiations and, consequently, the positive social interactions of the students.

An empirical definition of elementary school adjustment. Selection of target behaviors for a comprehensive treatment program

As a first step in the identification of functional skills required for successful adjustment in elementary school, 130 kindergarten through fifth-grade students participated in a naturalistic descriptive investigation. Of the children studied, 55 were identified by teachers as "not making a good social adjustment to school" (low rated) and 75 were identified as "making a good social adjustment to school" (high rated). These two groups were compared on 15 dependent variables selected to provide a broad-based assessment of school adjustment. Measures were drawn from direct observations in academic and nonacademic settings, self-reports, and assessments of academic achievement. In addition to correlational analyses replicating earlier findings, the results indicate that the two groups differed significantly on the overall assessment of school adjustment variables, and that this overall effect was due to specific differences on six measures.