Teaching pro-social skills to help young children at risk to (PDF)

Rowan University Rowan University Rowan Digital Works Rowan Digital Works Theses and Dissertations 6-10-2005 Teaching pro-social skills to help young children at risk to Teaching pro-social skills to help young children at risk to succeed in inclusive education succeed in inclusive education Susan M. Weston Rowan University Follow this and additional works at: https://rdw.rowan.edu/etd Part of the Special Education and Teaching Commons Recommended Citation Recommended Citation Weston, Susan M., "Teaching pro-social skills to help young children at risk to succeed in inclusive education" (2005). Theses and Dissertations. 1094. https://rdw.rowan.edu/etd/1094 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Rowan Digital Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Rowan Digital Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]  TEACHING PRO-SOCIAL SKILLS TO HELP YOUNG CHILDREN AT RISK TO SUCCEED IN INCLUSIVE EDUCATION By Susan M. Weston A Thesis Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts in Teaching Degree of Special Education of The Graduate School Rowan University May 2005 Approved by Date approved J t( , ts   ABSTRACT Susan Weston PROSOCIAL SKILLS INTERVENTION AMONG REGULAR EDUCATION PRE-K STUDENTS AT VALLEY PARK SCHOOL 2005 Dr. Mian Wang Master of Arts in Special Education The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the pro-social skills program that the Valley Park Pre-K students have been exposed to. Ten typically developing 4-year-olds participated in this research study. A review of observations revealed that this pro-social skills program reduced problem behavior. These children greatly improved in their social skills. They were extremely cooperative and attentive during the teaching activities and lessons. They all willingly participated and were very interested in partaking in the games. I believe that this was a very successful program and could be implemented and integrated in other preschool classrooms and curriculums.  TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page 1. INTRODUCTION........................................................ 1 Statement of the Problem ......................................... ....... 1 Significance of the Study ........................ ............... ....... ... 3 Purpose of the Study.................................................... 4 Research Questions.... ....................................................... 5 2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE ......... ........... .............. 6 Social Skill Development.................................................................. 6 Social Skills..................... ............. . .... .... .......... .......... 7 Interventions.................................................................. 7 An Overview of Prosocial Skill Training................................ 9 Summary of Literature Review.......................................... ... 10 3. METHODOLOGY .................................................. ... ... 14 Sam ples............. ..................... ............. ..... .................. . 14 Settings.................................................................... ... 14 Procedure and Measures ................................. ............... 15 Data Analysis..................................................................... 17 4. RESULTS..................... .......................................... 18 Effectiveness of Social Skill Training........ .................................... 19  Decrease of Inappropriate Behavior..................................... 20 5. DISCUSSIONS, CONCLUSIONS, AND LIMITATIONS............... 29 REFERENCES.......... ......... .............................................. ...... 35  LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE 1 Line graph of the target behavior change: not following directions. 24 FIGURE 2 Line graph of the target behavior change: not listening ............. 25 FIGURE 3 Line graph of the target behavior change: interrupting.............. 26 FIGURE 4 Line graph of the target behavior change: not following directions... 27 FIGURE 5 Line graph of the target behavior change: not listening............... 28 FIGURE 6 Line graph of the target behavior change: "interrupting................ 28  Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION Statement of the Problem Most early childhood educators want to give their young students the education, patience, and love that they need and deserve to function and mature into young adults. Although my school has a Pre-K curriculum, it doesn't have an intense, specific, pro- social skills training program or curriculum with it. Although the program can be revised, it is important in the meantime to provide the students with the necessary skills and tools they will need to be socially accepted. Although conventional wisdom suggests that pre-schoolers should be learning things in school such as pre-academic skills, studies have shown that social competence is the ultimate goal of preschool educational services (Pohlman & McWilliam, 1999). It is noted that the problem of preschoolers is not their pre-academic skill level, but how malleable is their social competence and how might improved social competence affect their developmental levels. Teaching prosocial skills in an integral part of preschool learning and development. There is a general assumption that a child's lack of social competence will greatly affect his or her life down the road. The younger the children learn the prosocial skills training, the better off they will be. Skillstreaming is a teaching process that focuses on four direct principles of learning. These learning procedures-modeling, role-playing, performance feedback, and generalization are used to teach appropriate prosocial behaviors. A skillstreaming  model makes the assumption that the learner has a deficit in social skills. This theory then enables the teacher to use proactive instruction and teach desirable skills. It's a vicious cycle because if the child has' a deficit in their social skills, they are more likely to be a big behavior problem. That is why the teaching of prosocial skills in extremely beneficial to young children. "Problem behaviors" are defined as behaviors that are inappropriate and socially unacceptable. There is a set of prevention and intervention strategies that derive from functional behavior assessment (FBA) and positive behavior support (PBS). These prevention strategies which will stop students' inappropriate behavior from occurring. have increasingly become more popular practice over the last decade due to the its emphasis in the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). It is recommended in IDEA that the use of FBA is preferable to other behavior assessment and intervention techniques in the process of forming a behavioral intervention plan (BIP) to support and help children with severe and challenging behavior. The key difference between traditional discipline and PBS practice sheds light on the emphasis of teaching new and appropriate social skills as the basis for intervention. It is about manipulating the student's environment in a positive manner so that he or she Will be able to succeed in the classroom. PBS is also created and intended for the individual needs of the child. FBA goes hand in hand with the PBS. The purpose of FBA is to detect why the inappropriate behaviors occur and how to remedy them with different approaches and interventions.  Significance of the Study Rather than rewriting the entire curriculum, it is hoped that these new activities will help the children to acquire the appropriate skills necessary in order to function appropriately in school, at home, and in public. There are various facets to the features of social skills Interventions for preschoolers. There is prompting, and rehearsal of target behavior, play-related activities, free-play generalization, reinforcement of appropriate behaviors, modeling of specific skills, storytelling, direct instruction of social skills, and the imitation of appropriate behaviors. There have been many different studies performed on children with social skills deficits and how it affects them in the classroom. Teachers appear to be less positive than parents about the outcomes from the social skills intervention. It is important to take different rater's perspectives into consideration when interpreting changes in a child's social behavior. The major intervention strategies that were reported in the studies are: modeling, play-related activities, rehearsal/practice, and prompting. According to Storey and Danko (1994), it cannot be assumed that social skill intervention will be generalized to non-trained students. General case programming will be necessary to facilitate the generalization of social skills interventions. Through the follow-up of social skills instructions for preschoolers with disabilities, 5 different skills were taught such as: getting a friend's attention, sharing, sharing requests, play organizers, and compliments. They pointed out the acquisition of social skills will positively affect the person's quality of life,  According to Rafferty, Piscitelli, and Boettcher (2003), preschoolers with less severe disabilities did not make greater gains in inclusion settings. Children with more severe disabilities did not make greater gains in segregated settings. In another study that examined how to train developmentally delayed preschoolers to perform specific social behaviors,.they provided educators a useful social skills program for developmentally delayed preschoolers. It is found that students in the control group did not improve their social skills significantly in comparison with those in the treatment group who did. This study indicates the importance of social skill train that will lead to decrease of inappropriate behavior of preschool children with disabilities, and increase of positive social interactions. In addition, a number of studies have been done on mainstreaming and integration. There have also been studies on examining the effects of integration on child development and social interactions among preschoolers with disabilities. In Craig's and McWilliam's (2002) study that focused on the benefits of full inclusion and integrated therapy in a preschool learning environment, it was found that children 's goals and objectives are related to social competence. Therefore, social competence can be a framework for all therapy goals and services. Purpose of the Study It is assumed that the Pre-K students at Valley Park School do enjoy school, their teacher, and learning activities. It is further assumed that the children will be cooperative attentive in order to get the appropriate training which will lead to an improvement in their social skills. Although it is extremely difficult to hold the attention span of children of this age  and assess their progress, it is assumed that they will cooperate, and I will use appropriate teaching, tools, and methods to perform this study. The success of the study will depend on the cooperation, participation, and the patience of the children in this study. The children will be in an extremely rigid and intense daily prosocial skills lessons and activities. The basic learning outcomes and objectives that I will be focusing on are: listening, cooperating, improving peer relations, and following directions. The purpose of this study is to provide Valley Park students with the necessary Pro-social skills to help them interact better with their peers, teachers, and families. The Objective of the research is to determine the effectiveness of implementing a pro-social Skill program in the regular education pre-K classroom. The scope of this study is limited to Pre-K students at Valley Park Elementary School. Although older students could benefit from this program at a higher level, I believe it is most crucial for the younger children to learn these social skills at a young age. The brevity, lack of depth and scope, and the non-random sample of this study limits its generalization, and the results cannot be assumed to apply to a larger or different population. Research Questions 1. Will Pre-K students improve their social skills as a result of participation in the pro-social skills program? 2. Does learning pro-social skills lead to the decrease of students' problem behaviors?  Chapter 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE Children who have learned appropriate social skills have more advantages over children who have not learned basic social skills. Social readiness skills will help children learn and be ready for school. Appropriate social behaviors are positively correlated with academic performance. Children learn appropriate and inappropriate social skills from many different places and from many different people. A caregiver's response to a child's inappropriate behavior is a big predictor of that child's future misbehavior. In the following sections, I will focus the literature review on the three specific topics: (a) Issues on social skill development, (b) overview ofpre-social skill training, and (c) an overview of functional behavior assessment and positive behavior support. Social Skill Development A number of studies have been done over the years showing that children who have communication and language deficits and delays have a great difficulty with social interactions with their peers. This then could possibly turn into a severe behavior problem when a student's needs and wants are not being understood or met. Craig- Unkefer and Kaiser (2002) reported the results of a study that examined the effects of a three-Component intervention on the social-communicative interactions of a few pre- school Children. The children were taught to plan their play, use conversational social interaction strategies, and self-evaluate their play interactions. This study revealed  that the language, communication, play, and behavior had significantly improved after this special training. Social Skills Storey and Danko (1994) reported that teacher-directed token systems were an effective social skills intervention program. This study dealt with the generalization of social skills interventions for pre-schoolers. The five intervention strategies included getting your friend's attention, sharing, share requests, play organizers, and compliments. The results of this study showed that it can not be assumed that social skill intervention effects will generalize to non-trained situations. Storey and Danko (1992) assumed that the acquisition of appropriate social skills will positively affect a child's quality of life, although this assumption has received little or no empirically proven data. Their study provided that social behavior changes brought by peer-mediated interventions may generalize to new social contexts. Interventions Rafferty, Piscitelli, and Boettcher (2003) discovered that a planned intervention designed to promote social interactions had a significant impact on language development, but not on other learning outcomes. An interaction was, however, found for a planned intervention and social competence. Their study discovered that social competence among pre-schoolers in an integrated versus segregated settings did not differentiate between social skills and problem behaviors. Vaughn et al. (2003) conducted a study between 1975 and 1999 on social skills interventions for young children. Positive outcomes were associated with a variety of interventions, such as modeling, play-related activities, rehearsal/practice, and  prompting. There were basic social skills interactions training to pre-schoolers on promoting play and friend interactions. These are a few features of social skills interventions for preschoolers: rehearsal of target behaviors, play-related activities, free- play generalization, reinforcement of appropriate behaviors, modeling of specific social skills, storytelling, direct instruction of social skills, and imitation of appropriate behaviors. This study revealed that educators and children will benefit from this type of a social skills intervention program because it can connect with their early childhood programs. Matson, Fee, and Coe (1991) conducted a study on implementing a social skills training program for 4 and 5- year olds in a free play situation. The types of instructions, strategies, and methods were direct instruction, modeling, and behavioral rehearsal with teacher prompts. The authors targeted specific behaviors such as greetings and asking to see a toy. Inappropriate social behaviors were tantrums, aggression, and grabbing toys. Appropriate social behavior was taught through puppets, peer modeling, role playing, and instructions. Cited in Pohlman's and McWilliam's (1999) study, Guralnick states that, "gains in cognitive, motor, and language development are important correlates of improved social competence," (1990, p. 87). Some educators and researchers believe that social competence should be the framework for conceptualizing goals in early childhood education. Unfortunately, children with language or motor delays can have potential difficulties in the social domain. Odom and Ogwawa (1992,) proposed that "facility and verbal communication and facility in play are two classes of social