The Effect of Social Skill Training on the Peer Interaction of Preschool Hearing-Impaired Children

Abstract

The following study evaluated the effectiveness of a social skills intervention program for preschool hearing-impaired children. A combined multiple baseline-reversal design was used across two groups of three children. Activities were designed that created opportunities for practicing social skills accompanied by instructor modeling and prompting and data on positive and negative interaction were obtained during instructor-directed activities and free play probes. Results showed that (a) positive peer interaction increased for both groups of children, (b) sharing increased more than conversation, (c) positive interaction generalized to the free play setting while the intervention was in effect, and (d) positive interaction decreased when the intervention ceased. The relationship between linguistic competence and social interactions is discussed, and suggestions are made for future research.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Antia, S. (1982). Social interaction of partially mainstreamed hearing-impaired children. American Annals of the Deaf, 127, 18-25.

Barton, E.J. & Osborne, J.G. (1978). The development of classroom sharing by a teacher using positive practice. Behaviour Modification, 231-249.

Brackett, M. , & Henniges, M. (1976). Communicative interaction of preschool hearing impaired children in an integrated setting. The Volta Review , 78, 276-285.

Cartledge, G. , & Milburn, J.F. (1981). Teaching social skills to children. New York: Pergamon Press.

Geoffrion, L. (1982). An analysis of teletype conversations. American Annals of the Deaf, 127, 747-752.

Hendrickson, J.M. , Strain, P.S. , Tremblay, A. , & Shores, R.E. (1982). Interactions of behaviorally handicapped children. Functional effects of peer socialization. Behavior Modification , 6, 323-353.

Higginbotham, D.J. , & Baker, B.M. (1981). Social participation and cognitive play differences in hearing-impaired and normally hearing preschoolers. The Volta Review, 83, 135-149.

Kazdin, A.E. (1982). Single case research designs: Methods for clinical and applied settings. New York: Oxford University Press.

Kelly, J.A. , Furman, W. , Phillips, J. , Hathorn, S. , & Wilson, T. (1979). Teaching conversation skills to retarded adolescents . Child Behavior Therapy, 1, 85-91.

10.

La Greca, A.M. , & Mesibov, G.B. (1979). Social skills intervention with learning disabled children: Selecting skills and implementing training. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 8, 234-241.

11.

Lemanek, K.L. , Williamson, D.A. , Gresham, F.M. , & Jensen, B.J. (1986). Social skills training with hearing-impaired children and adolescents. Behaviour Modification, 55-71.

12.

McKirdy, K. , & Blank, M. (1982). Dialogue in deaf and hearing preschoolers. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 25, 487-499.

13.

Odom, S.L. , & Asher, S.R. (1977). Coaching children in social skills for friendship making. Child Development, 48, 495-506.

14.

Odom, S.L. , Hoyson, M. , Jamieson, B. , & Strain, P.S. (1985). Increasing handicapped preschoolers peer social interaction: Cross setting and component-analysis. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 18, 3-16.

15.

Odom, S.L. , Strain, P.S. , Karger, M. , & Smith, J. (1986). Using single and multiple peers to promote social interaction of preschool children with handicaps. Journal of the Division for Early Childhood, 10, 53-64.

16.

Rogers-Warren, A.K. , Ruggles, T.R. , Peterson, N.L. , & Cooper, A.Y. (1981). Playing and learning together. Patterns of social interaction in handicapped and nonhandicapped children. Journal of the Division of Early Childhood, 3, 56-63.

17.

Tawney, J.N. , & Gast, D.L. (1984). Single subject research in special education. Columbus: Charles E. Merrill.

18.

Vandell, D.L. , & George, B. (1981). Social interactions in hearing and deaf preschoolers . Child Development, 52(2), 627-635.