Promoting turn-taking skills in preschool children with disabilities: The effects of a peer-based social communication intervention

The current study evaluated the turn-taking skills of preschoolers with disabilities who participated in a social communication intervention that targeted initiations, responses, and turn-taking skills, and taught children to repair and revise and to avoid interruptions and overlaps. Ten children who enrolled in an inclusive at-risk classroom met the inclusion criteria. A multiple baseline design across two dyads replicated across three additional dyads was used to determine the effects of the intervention. The social communication intervention was highly effective for five children, moderately effective for three children, and mildly effective for two children in increasing the rate of initiations with an immediate peer response from baseline to intervention. The social communication intervention was highly effective for one child, moderately effective for three children, mildly effective for two children, and ineffective for four children in improving turn-taking skills. Generalization results showed that nine out of ten participants demonstrated increased peer play following the intervention, increased levels of child-initiated interactions with a positive peer response, and decreased levels of solitary play. Several implications for practice were derived from the findings. By teaching children turn-taking strategies, the quality of social interactions that children have with their peers is likely to improve. The intervention offers a more systematic technique for teaching social communication and play skills than do informal strategies commonly used by teachers. Social validity assessments indicated that teachers found the intervention acceptable and produced important changes in behavior.     

Pivotal response treatment for prompting social behaviors of Korean American children with autism

There is a growing need to consider the cultural responsiveness of behavioral interventions for individuals with disabilities, given increasing diversity in the United States. This study examined the effectiveness of peer-mediated pivotal response treatment (PRT) on social behaviors of Korean American children with autism, an understudied yet growing part of the group of Asians who have been overrepresented in autism diagnoses. In addition, this study investigated the social validity of the intervention, using a post-treatment questionnaire and family interviews to gather stakeholders’ perceptions. A multiple baseline design across four dyads was used. Results indicated that peer-mediated PRT effectively increased social interactions between focus children and their peers. Stakeholders reported positive social validity for the intervention. Recommendations and implications for future researchers and practitioners are presented.     

Social IEP Objectives, Teacher Talk, and Peer Interaction in Inclusive and Segregated Preschool Settings

The purpose of this study was to examine: (a) the role of teacher talk in promoting peer interaction, (b) the adequacy of social IEP objectives to reflect children’s social functioning and guide provision of teacher talk, and (c) differences in children’s peer interaction and teacher talk in inclusive and segregated settings. Thirty children with disabilities and their teachers participated. Overall, we observed low rates of teacher talk thought to support peer interaction; however, when teachers verbally facilitated peer interaction, children were observed interacting more frequently with peers. Children’s social IEPs accurately reflected their current level of social functioning. However, the social IEPs appeared to fail to influence teacher intervention. Finally, children with disabilities in inclusive settings interacted with peers more than children in segregated settings, even though there was no significant difference in amount of teacher talk in the two settings.     

Promoting Prosocial Behaviours Among Preschool Children With and Without Disabilities

A multiple probe across subjects design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention program on promoting prosocial behaviours among preschool children with and without disabilities. The intervention was carried out with three integrated groups of children, each comprised of one child with a disability and two peers without disabilities, created from three mainstreamed preschool classrooms. The intervention was successful in promoting increases in positive social interactions among the children with disabilities and their peers without disabilities. For two of the three groups the children with disabilities engaged in an equal or greater percentage of positive social initiations than their peers without disabilities. Increases in positive social responses to positive social initiations were similar for children with and without disabilities. Intervention phase behavioural changes generalised to both immediate group conditions, but did not generalise to deferred classroom conditions. Variability of response to intervention across groups highlights the need to develop and implement interventions on an individualised basis. The results indicate that further research is needed regarding the promotion of deferred generalisation effects as well as understanding the effects that trainer presence may have on the generalisation of the targeted social behaviours. There is also a need for the investigation of the potential for gender‐related effects including differential activity levels, ability for sustained attention, and group composition.     

The Effectiveness of the Responsive Teaching Parent-mediated Developmental Intervention Programme in Turkey: A pilot study

The case study was conducted to examine the feasibility of an early intervention curriculum called Responsive Teaching with two five-year-old children from Turkey who had significant developmental delays. This study determined whether Turkish mothers might be successful in learning to become more responsive to their children, and whether this would result in significant improvements in their children’s development. Both dyads received 28 individual parent–child intervention sessions which were conducted over a four-month period of time. Pre-, mid-, and post-assessments indicated improvements in the mothers’ responsiveness to their children and the children’s levels of engagement with their parents. There were also improvements in the children’s language and personal social development. Mothers reported that Responsive Teaching helped them learn to interact more effectively with their children and that this resulted in longer and more enjoyable interactions with them. Results from this investigation are discussed in terms of their implications for providing developmental services to preschool-aged children with disabilities in Turkey.     

Relationship between social perception and peer status in children with learning disabilities

This study was undertaken to examine the social perceptual skill deficit theory in explaining the low peer acceptance of children with learning disabilities. The quality of tests measuring social perception was also examined. Thirty 9- to 12-year-old children with learning disabilities and a matched control group were given two measures of social perception: a laboratory task and a behavior rating scale. The behavior rating scale was completed by the children's teachers. In addition, the Peer Acceptance Scale (Bruininks, Rynders, & Gross, 1974) was administered to assess peer status. Results showed that the children with learning disabilities differed significantly from their nondisabled peers on each of the three measures-the children with learning disabilities obtained lower social perception and peer acceptance scores. However, the relationships between sociometric status and social perception varied as a function of task. A small but significant correlation wa found between the behavior rating scale and peer status. The laboratory task was not correlated with either the behavior rating scale or peer status. Results are discussed in terms of the psychometric properties of laboratory versus naturalistic measures of social perception and the importance of establishing the external validity of social skill measures by correlating them with outcome measures such as peer status.     

Enhancing Social Acceptance of Early Adolescents with Physical Disabilities: effects of role salience,peer interaction,and academic support interventions

The study designed and field-tested the effectiveness of a school-based program for enhancing the social acceptance of early adolescents (i.e., ages 11 to 14 years) with physical disabilities attending ordinary Zimbabwean schools (N=218; Mean age 12.49, SD=1.87 years). Actual (i.e., peer) social acceptance and perceived (i.e., self) social acceptance were considered and for same-gender and opposite-gender groups. The program involved (a) a role salience intervention, (b) a peer interaction intervention, and (c) an academic support intervention, and combinations of the individual interventions. The social enhancement protocols were pilot tested over a three-month period. The main study involved entire classrooms (N=194 classrooms; 8342 students) in order to avoid contamination of the interventions, treat the context of prejudice and enable non-disabled classmates to benefit from participation. Nomination sociometric techniques were used to measure social acceptance, and identify student-preferred school or classroom roles, preferred peers, and preferred academic services. Measures of intervention effectiveness were taken at 12-week intervals over a 6-month period. Repeated measures analysis showed that the peer interaction intervention was singularly more effective than the role salience and academic support interventions in raising the actual social status of students with physical disabilities. Interventions involving role salience were effective in raising the students' perceived social status.     

The Incredible Years Parent Program for Chinese Preschoolers With Developmental Disabilities

Research Findings: The objective of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of Incredible Years Basic Parent Training (IYPT Basic) in a community clinic setting in Hong Kong. IYPT Basic is a Western program developed to promote children’s academic, social, and emotional regulation skills and to reduce conduct problems among typically developing children. The program has not been tested in non-Western cultures, where the challenges for parents of children with developmental disabilities can be different. The IYPT Basic was adapted slightly to accommodate cultural characteristics in Hong Kong. Parents of 52 preschoolers with developmental disabilities were randomly assigned to either the IYPT Basic or a waitlist control. Parent and child dyads were assessed before and after the 12-week intervention/waitlist period via self-reports and spouse/kin reports and videotape coding by observers blind to the intervention/waitlist status. Significant intervention benefits included (a) increase in positive and reciprocal parent –child interaction, (b) reduction in parental stress, and (c) decrease in oppositional behavior among the children. The parents’ attendance, satisfaction, and homework compliance was high. Practice or Policy: IYPT Basic, when implemented with cultural sensitivity, can be effective for —and well received by—Chinese parents of preschoolers with developmental disabilities in a community setting.     

Effective Social Interaction Strategies for Inclusive Settings

Many strategies and interventions exist in the education of young children with disabilities. One area of intervention is that of social interaction, including social skills instruction, peer interaction strategies, and play skills. Interaction and social skill strategies for use with children with and without disabilities for the purpose of increasing social interactions between children with and without disabilities in educational settings is an area many educators of early childhood special education strive to find in an effective and easy to implement format. Several strategies from research are presented in this article. Only strategies that were demonstrated to be successful through reported research are discussed. Strategies are identified according to their ease of implementation and effectiveness.     

Demonstration of Classroom Survival Skills in Kindergarten: A five-year transition study of children with intellectual disabilities

Thirty-three children with a range of intellectual disabilities who participated in a transition program embedded within a model inclusive preschool program were enrolled in mainstream kindergarten classes from 1995 to 1999. In the second of four kindergarten terms the classroom survival skills, on-task behaviour across a range of activities and following teacher directions, were measured by observing the children with intellectual disabilities and a typical peer, nominated by each classroom teacher. While the teacher-nominated peers outperformed the students with intellectual disabilities in total time-on-task, the level achieved by the children with intellectual disabilities was still at the lower end of what is regarded as average. There was no statistical difference between the two groups in on-task behaviour during independent activities but the difference between the groups during whole class instruction was highly significant. This may have implications for the selection of strategies for preparing children for transition and the adaptation of teaching practices. On-task behaviour did not vary a great deal across level of intellectual disability but gender may have been a contributing factor. There appeared to be a greater difference between students with and without disabilities in responding to teacher directions. The results of the present study suggest that successful demonstration of these critical skills requires more appropriate teacher preparation and intervention at the kindergarten level.     

Effects of peer versus computer‐assisted drill on mathematics response rates

This study investigated the functional relationship between student accurate response levels and two mathematics drill procedures using a BCBC across participant's single case research design (in this case, “B” represents peer drill and “C” represents computer drill). Each of four elementary school students was randomly assigned to one of two dyads and presented addition flashcards under a computerized drill condition and a peer‐mediated drill condition. In both conditions, students were drilled for 3 minutes on addition facts with immediate feedback (i.e., “Correct” or “Not correct”). Results suggested that the two somewhat older students showed higher levels of accurate responding in the computer condition, while the two younger students showed higher levels of accurate responding in the peer‐tutoring condition. Discussion focuses on potential hypotheses for performance discrepancies across dyads, importance of matching instructional conditions with idiosyncratic variables, and implications for practice and future research. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 42: 637–646, 2005.     

A Comparison of Lower‐ and Higher‐Resourced Tier 2 Reading Interventions for High School Sophomores

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of peer‐mediated versus teacher‐directed reading intervention on the reading performance of high school sophomores. Participants (n = 57) from the lowest 25th percentile of their sophomore class in reading were assigned randomly to peer‐mediated or teacher‐directed intervention. Fifteen to sixteen 25‐minute intervention sessions over 12 weeks included listening passage preview, retelling, and main idea questioning. Linear regression revealed statistically significant main effects of intervention on maze selection, with both treatment groups outperforming a nonequivalent control group (ES = .69–1.00). There were no statistically significant differences on oral reading fluency or maze selection between the peer‐mediated and teacher‐directed groups. Participating in peer‐mediated intervention and receiving more minutes of instruction were significantly associated with higher performance on the district reading assessment. Implications for allocating resources to tiered intervention in secondary schools are discussed.     

Linkages between delayed children's social interactions with mothers and peers

The social dimensions of family-peer linkages of 4- to 6-year-old children (N=63) with developmental delays (IQ range, 50-80) were examined in this study. Hierarchical regressions revealed consistent and meaningful patterns of association relating children's influence attempts directed toward their mothers and their interactions with peers. A similar association with peer interactions was found for children's ability to obtain compliance from their mothers. Evidence suggested the existence of a core behavioral pattern that children exhibit with different partners and in different contexts. The role of horizontal forms of parent-child interactions in promoting the peer relationships of children with delays was suggested, particularly in terms of an intervention approach for this group of children.     

Family‐Centred Early Intervention in Singapore

This paper describes the pilot project (Project ASSIST) on early intervention of 40 disabled infants between the ages of 2 and 5 years. Its main objective was to look into the feasibility of integrating children with mild disabilities into mainstream preschool centres in Singapore. The intervention goals were related to the problems encountered by the children, their families and teachers. Professional staff such as occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech therapists and psychologists intervened through providing consultations to parents and teachers who were taught the intervention follow‐up. An evaluation conducted after 9 months of the program (a) showed high levels of peer and school personnel acceptance, (b) indicated that Project ASSIST was an important service to both children and their families, and (c) demonstrated the feasibility of integrating children with disabilities into mainstream preschool centres.     

The Social Skills and Social Status of Mainstreamed Students with Intellectual Disabilities

This paper reports on the social skills and social status of 22 students with mainly moderate intellectual disabilities who had received an inclusive preschool intervention and were subsequently followed up from 18 months to more than five years later in their mainstream classrooms. Measures included direct assessment of social interaction in the playground, social status obtained by interviewing classmates, and the ratings of classroom teachers, parents and school principals. Large differences were found between the students with disabilities and their typical peers for amount of time spent interacting with peers and amount of time spent in isolation, with a moderate difference found for interactions with teachers. However, no difference was found between the social status of the two groups, and the students with disabilities were still spending more than half their time in the playground interacting with typically developing peers. Parents generally rated their children as having better social skills than did principals or teachers. A moderate relationship was found between the direct measures of peer interactions and teachers' perceptions of peer interaction skills. The relationships between the parents' and principals' perceptions of peer interaction and direct measures of the interaction were only small. Some of the implications of these findings for integrating students into mainstream schools and classes are discussed.     

The Effects of Variety of Activities on the Social Interaction of Preschool Children with Disabilities

Analysis of previous research has indicated that restricting the amount of equipment available may be a practical strategy to facilitate peer interaction in childcare, but a disadvantage is a possible increase in aggressive behaviour. An alternative approach is manipulating the variety of activities while holding the quantity and type of equipment consistent. The effect of such an intervention was examined on social interaction of two children with disabilities including severe language problems. A single case alternating treatment design was used to compare the effectiveness of eight activities, as opposed to four activities with the quantity of equipment doubled. There was no consistent clinically significant difference in social interaction when the variety of activities was varied for the children in this study. It is possible that the language delay of the participants may have attenuated the effect of the intervention, and this possibility warrants further investigation.     

Externalizing Problems in Two-Year-Olds: Implications for Patterns of Social Behavior and Peers' Responses to Aggression

A sample of 48 two-year-old children selected on the basis of parents' responses to two administrations of the Child Behavior Checklist for two to three-year-olds was observed in peer interactions. Twenty-four of these children displayed symptoms of aggressive/destructive (externalizing) problems that were in the borderline clinical range (labelled "high risk") and 24 children displayed few such symptoms ("low risk"). The children were observed in matched dyads (one high risk and one low risk child) across four tasks designed to vary in the degree of social participation they would elicit from the children. Across all tasks, children in the high risk group displayed significantly and consistently more aggressive behavior than the children in the low risk group. However, these high risk children did not differ from other children in terms of several indices of social and nonsocial play. In addition, when children were classified as high aggressive versus average versus low aggressive on the basis of laboratory behavior, children who displayed high amounts of aggression during the play sessions did not differ from less aggressive children on these indices of social play. Finally, the responses of non-aggressive dyad partners to aggressive acts indicated that children are responsive, in relatively subtle ways, to aggression. These results are discussed in terms of the implications of early problematic behavior for later indices of maladjustment that include social competence and peer rejection.     

Educational inclusion in Singapore for children with physical disabilities

Under Singapore’s inclusive education policy, children with mild physical disabilities are integrated into mainstream schools. There is currently no known published research yet in Singapore on the outcomes of inclusion for children with physical disabilities. Internationally, recent research had compared the school experience of children with physical disabilities to that of their typically developing peers. This study examined the social and academic impact of educational inclusion for children with physical disabilities. It investigated how their participation in school activities, academic performance, self-esteem, peer relationships, and social/emotional development compared to that of typically developing schoolmates. A total of 60 clients (n = 30 with physical disability; n = 30 typically developing students; age range = 8 to 16 years) in a local primary and secondary regular school participated in the study. The children with physical disabilities met academic expectations in school and had comparable levels of self-esteem, but experienced peer problems and participated less in school activities. Understanding children’s overall school experience is critical to becoming an inclusive society that enables children with a range of disabilities to benefit academically and socially. Implications for practice and future research were discussed.     

A classwide peer‐modeling intervention package to increase on‐task behavior

Evidence‐based classwide interventions have the potential to help a large number of students by preventing problem behaviors before they become a significant problem in the classroom. Results of a study examining the effectiveness of a classwide peer‐modeling intervention package to improve students' on‐task behavior in the classroom are presented. The classwide intervention took place in three mixed‐grade classrooms (third/fourth, fourth/fifth, and fifth/sixth) with 14–20 students each. Fifteen‐minute intervention sessions occurred approximately two times a week for a total of six to eight sessions. During each intervention session, students watched a 4‐minute videotape segment depicting a peer model demonstrating near 100% on‐task behavior, which was accompanied by verbal coaching and small tangible rewards. Results demonstrated large treatment effects across all three classrooms, which remained large in two of the classrooms at follow‐up 4–8 weeks later. Corresponding positive social validity by participating students and teachers was also documented. Results are discussed in terms of implications, limitations, and future research directions. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Friendship and bullying patterns in children attending a language base in a mainstream school

This study involved perceptions of bullying in six Year 7 children attending a speech and language base part‐time and the perceptions of their mainstream peers without speech and language problems. Base‐taught children and mainstreamed peers completed a bullying questionnaire and a social inclusion survey. Base‐taught children with language difficulties rated themselves three times more likely to be bullied than mainstream peers. Half of these base children, however, rated bullying as rare. These two sub‐groups differed on the number of peers willing to “hang out” with them, suggesting language difficulties and attendance at a segregated language base together are a “risk factor” for bullying whereas peer‐acceptance may be a “protecting factor”. An intervention helping children to use a “fogging” technique did not reduce bullying perceptions. It is suggested that inclusion‐oriented ecological interventions are more likely to encourage friendships and social acceptance among the wider peer group and thus may be the most effective interventions to prevent bullying.