Social Skills Instruction for Adolescents with Emotional Disabilities: A Technology-Based Intervention

Abstract

This study explored the use of multimedia, student-generated social skills lessons coupled with teacher facilitation to improve the social skills of middle-school students with emotional disabilities. The effects of teacher-led social skills instruction and the combination of teacher-led and multimedia student-generated social skills instruction on the perceived social behaviors of the students were compared. Maintenance of perceived student social skills over time was examined. Also evaluated were the effects of traditional and combined interventions on student knowledge of social skills. The results indicated that both interventions were effective in improving the students' social skills and their knowledge of social skills. Teachers, parents, and students all perceived that student social skills improved over the course of the study. Students appeared to have maintained the improvements from both interventions over the maintenance periods. The participating teachers perceived that the combined intervention was more effective than the traditional intervention in improving maintenance of social skills. However, parents and students did not perceive any differences in the effectiveness of the two interventions or of the two interventions over time on improving students' social skills performance.