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The Effectiveness
of a Social Skills Intervention This research was presented at the annual meeting of the National Association of School Psychologists (March, 1994) in collaboration with Dr. Judy Genshaft of the State University of New York at Albany and Dr. Andrea Bergman of St. John's University. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a social skills intervention for African American and Hispanic kindergarten students who vary in terms of social competence. The "Taking Part" intervention program (Cartledge and Kleefeld, 1991) was used in this study. Results of this study demonstrate that all children appear to benefit from social skills instruction, not just at-risk children. With improvements in social skills assessment technology, future research efforts can be directed toward understanding more fully the assessment, classification and instruction of students who have specific social skills deficits as well as understanding the relationship between social competence and other developing abilities in young children. Introduction The kindergarten screening literature is replete with student attributes and characteristics that have been empirically related, directly and indirectly, to early school performance. One student characteristic that is critical for academic success but rarely assessed in kindergarten screening programs is social competence. Deficits in social skills have been shown to be related to poor academic performance and may be predictive of social adjustment problems in adolescence and adulthood. This finding suggests that children with deficits in social skills are at-risk for academic and social problems and thus, social skills measures should be administered routinely during kindergarten screening. Until recently however, social skills assessment technology was largely inadequate and therefore, this important variable was typically assessed informally or not at all. As a result, few studies have focused on social skills training and its impact on subsequent social behavior and academic achievement, especially in young children (viz., kindergarten students) and minority groups. However, with the development of the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS; Gresham and Elliott, 1990), it is likely that improvements will be made in how social skills are assessed, classified and instructed. Only through a comprehensive assessment of student characteristics that includes measures of social skills can information obtained from kindergarten screening procedures be useful in selecting or developing intervention programs that will help children learn and interact positively with others. The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of a social skills intervention for minority kindergarten students who vary in terms of social competence as determine by SSRS teacher ratings. Taking Part: Introducing Social Skills to Children (Cartledge and Kleefeld, 1991) is the intervention program that was implemented in this study because of its close association with the social skills measured by the SSRS. The effectiveness of this program was measured using subsequent teacher ratings on the SSRS as well as performance on the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery - Revised (WJ-R; Woodcock and Johnson, 1989) Academic Skills Cluster (E Dev) and Broad Knowledge Cluster following intervention. Subjects Subjects were 51 students (24 males, 27 females) attending kindergarten at a predominantly lower-class parochial school (approximately 600 students) in an inner-city community located in the Northeast. The sample consisted of 39 African-American and 12 Hispanic children. The mean age of the sample was five years, four months. Subjects were divided into two groups based on their initial scores (teacher ratings) on the SSRS such that children scoring greater than one SD below the mean were assigned to the risk group (N = 21) and all other subjects were assigned to the non-risk group (N = 30). These groups were then subdivided into performance categories of high (> 1SD above the mean), average (+ 1SD), and low (> 1SD below the mean) according to their scores on the WJ-R Broad Cognitive Cluster. Next, students were selected from these blocks and randomly assigned to one of six social skills instructional groups (approximately eight students per group, four risk and four non-risk) so that intervention groups would be manageable as well as balanced with respect to cognitive ability. Thus, social skills groups did not differ by level of intelligence and included competent students as well as students with significant skill deficiencies. Of the six groups, each containing both risk and non-risk students, three were assigned to receive the intervention between the first and second assessment (intervention first) and three were assigned to receive the intervention between the second and third assessment (intervention second). Subjects not receiving the social skills intervention participated in a play group in order to control for the effects of being removed from the classroom for a special group activity. The kindergarten teachers were blind to group assignment and order of intervention. The interventionists were blind to group assignment. The skills that were taught in these groups were those identified as either an acquisition or performance deficit by the classroom teachers. Specifically, the item analysis procedures outlined by Gresham and Elliott (1990) were adapted for use with a group of children (rather than an individual child) identified as at-risk. A frequency-by-importance matrix was completed for the entire risk group (N = 21). Items (i.e., behaviors) that received a Frequency rating of 0 and an Importance rating of one or two were identified as acquisition deficits, indicating that the behavior is absent but socially important. Behaviors that received a Frequency rating of one and an Importance rating of two were considered performance deficits, indicating that the behavior is performed inconsistently and considered critical. Those behaviors that were identified as either an acquisition or a performance deficit for the entire at-risk group were grouped logically according to the categories outlined by Cartledge and Kleefeld (1991) in their Taking Part intervention program. Following are the categories of instruction and the specific skills that were taught: a) Unit 1, Making Conversation (Introducing Yourself, Starting a Conversation, Joining a Discussion); b) Unit 3, Expressing Oneself (Making Positive Self Statements, Making Positive Statements to Others); c) Unit 4, Coordinating with Peers (Respecting Others' Property, Joining a Group Activity); d) Unit 5, Playing with Peers (Putting Away Materials). The techniques that were used to instruct this sample have been shown to be effective in helping children learn (Cartledge and Kleefeld, 1991). The intervention groups and play groups met for approximately 45-60 minutes biweekly for four consecutive weeks. Two groups (i.e., one intervention and one play) were conducted simultaneously at three separate times during the school day thereby allowing six groups to be run within one day. The specific times that the groups met (i.e., early morning, late morning, early afternoon) were counterbalanced across weeks. A new social skill was introduced at each session; a total of eight social skills were taught to the entire sample. Social skills were introduced via a puppet show. During the puppet show students were asked questions to ascertain their spontaneity and completeness of response. Following the puppet show, all students were given the opportunity to role play with the puppets, the interventionists and their peers. Following role play, the interventionists rated each child according to their level of mastery (i.e., needs more instruction, shows some competence, mastery). The first 15 minutes of each intervention group was devoted to practicing the social skill that was introduced in the previous session. The children who did not receive a rating of "mastery" in the previous session were selected first to role play with the interventionists and were given the most instruction during this time. However, all students were required to practice the previously taught social skill. At the end of the four weeks of social skills instruction, teachers were asked to complete the SSRS for all the students in their class. The SSRS teacher rating forms were completed within one week. Once these forms were collected, the interventionists taught the same eight social skills to the remaining three groups. The three groups that had received the four weeks of social skills instruction attended a play group for four weeks. At the end of the second four weeks of social skills instruction, teachers were asked again to complete the SSRS for all students in their classrooms. Design A two (group) x two (order of intervention) x three (assessment session) design was utilized. In order to compare the social skills ratings for the risk and non-risk groups at the three assessment points, analyses were conducted using a repeated measures analysis of variance. The within subjects independent variable was Session (S1, S2, S3) and the between subjects independent variables were Group (risk, non-risk) and Order (intervention first, intervention second). Means and standard deviations for the risk and non-risk groups for all variables show that at Session 1 (i.e., baseline), the non-risk group performed within the average range of ability in the areas of social skills, academic achievement and broad knowledge whereas the risk group generally performed within the low average range of functioning in these same areas. Results of a repeated measures analysis of variance revealed two significant main effects. The main effect for Group (F (1,47) = 32.51, p<.001) indicated that the risk group received lower ratings than the non-risk group. The main effect for Session (F (2,46) = 56.68, p<.001) appears to reflect increased ratings from S1 to S2 to S3. The main effect for Order was not significant, indicating that the group that received the intervention first did not differ from the group that received the intervention second. The following interactions were significant: Order x Session (F (2,46) = 16.92, p<.001); Risk x Session (F (2,46) = 9.31, p<.001); and Risk x Order x Session (F (2,46) = 3.30, p=.046). Inspection of the data presented in Figure 1 indicates that the groups that received the intervention exhibited greater increases in social skills ratings than the groups that received the play condition, irrespective of order, and that the risk group showed greater improvements due to the intervention than the non-risk group. Regarding the WJ-R Broad Knowledge Cluster, there was a significant Order x Session interaction (F (2, 46) = 4.69, p<.014). This indicates that the WJ-R Broad Knowledge Cluster increased significantly for both groups following intervention. An examination of the WJ-R Academic Skills Cluster (E Dev) revealed a significant main effect for Group (F (1, 47) = 6.12, p<.017) and Session (F (2, 46) = 9.52, p<.001), indicating that the groups differed significantly on the WJ-R and that both groups improved from S1 to S2 to S3 regardless of intervention. Several conclusions may be drawn from the results of the present investigation. First, kindergarten minority children who were identified as at-risk for social adjustment problems showed significant improvement on the SSRS Social Skills Composite (approximately one standard deviation) following intervention. Non-risk children also showed significant improvement on the SSRS (approximately 1/3 of a standard deviation), indicating that all children benefit from social skill instruction, not just children at-risk. Second, performance on the WJ-R Broad Knowledge Cluster improved significantly for both groups following intervention. Performance on the WJ-R Academic Skills Cluster (E Dev) improved significantly for both groups across sessions regardless of intervention. These findings indicate that improvements in social skills are associated with improvements in school achievement. Third, the SSRS appears to be a useful instrument for identifying and classifying children with specific social skills deficits and has recently been shown to be valid for use with the present population (Flanagan, Alfonso, Primavera, Povall and Higgins, 1996). Fourth, the SSRS appears to represent significant improvement in social skills assessment technology. Fifth, the Taking Part social skills intervention program appears to be a useful tool for working with minority kindergarten children who have social skills deficits as determined by the SSRS. Improvements in social skills technology notwithstanding, a greater understanding of social competence in young children and its relationship to other developing abilities (e.g., cognitive competence, physical competence, emotional competence) is needed to provide a basis for proactive curriculum planning (see Brooks-Gunn and Lewis, 1981; Ittenbach, Spiegel, McGrew, and Bruininks, 1992). To meet this need, researchers must evaluate assessment-related research vis a vis theoretical models (see Flanagan and Alfonso, 1995, Ittenbach, Spiegel, McGrew, and Bruininks, 1992; Keith, 1988; McGrew and Flanagan, 1996). Only through a multifactored assessment that is evaluated (through confirmatory factor analysis methods) within the context of a broad model of personal competence (e.g., Greenspan, 1981; Greenspan and Driscoll, in press) will the construct validity of social skills measures be substantiated further and the criterion-related utility of these and other instruments (i.e., intelligence, social-emotional, behavior) be realized. Information about a young child's current level of competence in any given developmental area as measured by any assessment instrument is only useful in so far as it is related to functioning in various other developmental domains (e.g., cognitive, physical/motor, language, social-emotional). Therefore, additional research is needed, across a variety of multicultural populations, that examines the role of social skills functioning (and other developing abilities) within a broad model of personal competence so that the relationships among early childhood abilities can be understood more fully. If social competence could be understood within a framework of other developing abilities in young children, its relevance in early educational interventions as well as diagnosis and classification of young children with special needs would be apparent.
Every
person has the right to life, to bodily integrity and to the means which
are suitable for the proper development of life; these are primarily food,
clothing, shelter, rest, Brooks-Gunn, J., and Lewis, M. (1981). Assessing young handicapped children: Issues and solutions. Journal of the Division of Early Childhood, 3, 83-95. Cartledge, G., and Kleefeld, J. (1991). Taking part: Introducing social skills to children. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service. Flanagan, D.P. (1995). Toward a clearer understanding of social competence in young children. NYSPA School Notes, 1, 5. Flanagan, D.P., and Alfonso, V.C. (1995). A critical review of the technical characteristics of new and recently revised intelligence tests for preschool children. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 13, 66-90. Flanagan, D.P., Alfonso, V.C., Primavera, L., Povall, L., and Higgins, D. (1996). Convergent validity of the BASC and SSRS: Implications for social skills assessment. Psychology in the Schools, 33, 13-23. Flanagan, D. P., Genshaft, J. L., and Bergman, A. (1994). The effectiveness of a social skills intervention with minority kindergarten students. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Association of School Psychologists, Chicago, IL. Greenspan,
S. (1981). Social competence and handicapped individuals: Practical Greenspan,
S. and Driscoll, J. (in press). The role of intelligence in a broad model
of Gresham, F.M., and Elliott, S.N. (1990). Social skills rating system manual. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service. Ittenbach,
R. F., Spiegel, A. N., McGrew, K. S., and Bruininks, R. H. (1992). Confirmatory
factor analysis of early childhood ability measures within a model
of personal Keith, T. (1988). Research methods in school psychology: An overview. School Psychology Review, 17, 502-520. McGrew, K.S. and Flanagan, D.P. (1996). An intelligence test desk reference (ITDR): Gf-Gc cross-battery assessment and interpretation. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Manuscript in preparation. top
of section or There
is hope that by meeting and negotiating, "Everyone
has the right to education. Education shall be directed to the full development
of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human
rights and fundamental freedoms."
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With
Minority Kindergarten Students