Goh Yi Huey, Group A

Case Study 1

Judging from the description in the case study, Annie appears to face difficulties in behavioural and social difficulties with regards to social communication, despite the fact that she is on par with her peers in terms of academic performance.
This shows that her main difficulty faced is in knowing and using the appropriate forms of communication behaviours in group interactions, besides having the linguistic skills to do so.

Thus, this report will look into an area of intervention for Annie’s social and emotional developmental skills through a strategy used.

(i) Intervention – “Facilitating peer-group entry in Kindergartners with impairments in social communication”

It is shown through various studies that children with language impairments face difficulties in the area of social communication (Brinton & Fujiki, 1997; Craig & Washington, 1993; Guralnick, Connor, Hammond, Gottman, & Kinnish, 1996; Redmond & Rice, 1998, 2002; Rice, Sell, & Hadley, 1991, as cited in Beilingson & Olswang, 2003). The journal elaborates that children have to find ways in initiating peer interaction before they can be accepted by peers.

A peer-entry treatment sequence was devised based on the research of Dodge et al. (1983), Hadley and Schuele (1998), and Brinton and Fujiki (2000). The treatment in this study facilitated the peer-group entry process by combining the use of a prop with either a low-risk behavior (mimicking the peer group) or a high-risk behavior (making a group-oriented statement).

This intervention strategy proposed focuses on three essential components:
- ‘The child is assigned a role to establish him or her as part of the group’,
- ‘The child is prompted by an adult to initiate interactions’, and
- ‘The child is given a highly valued prop (toy) for the purpose of integrating him or her into the peer group’. (Hadley & Schuele, 1998, as cited in Beilingson & Olswang, 2003).


The children who participated in this intervention shared similar behavioral backgrounds with Annie. For instance, most of them were on par with the cognitive developmental milestones for their age, but appeared to face difficulties in their social communication during play or interaction with other friends. The procedures for this intervention included having this group of children to initiate play with another group of typically developing children in a classroom setting. The supporting staff in this intervention included a ‘head teacher with a master’s degree in special education, an assistant teacher who was completing her degree in special education, and a full-time aide’ (Beilingson & Olswang, 2003).

This intervention strategy consisted of treatment and probe sessions. The treatment sessions were responsible in teaching the targeted children appropriate actions and behaviours in initiating peer interaction. High-risk strategies such as the use of verbal statements were taught. After each treatment session, the targeted child would be required to initiate play with a host peer with the use of strategies that were learnt. Prompts were provided by the treatment provider as needed, until the child has made a successful attempt in peer-group entry.

The probe sessions were responsible in collecting information about the progress of targeted children through the use of observation records. This is so that further adjustments (if necessary) could be made to facilitate each child’s progress to the maximum possibility.

(ii) Its effectiveness

During the treatment phase, there was little change in the number of low-risk behaviors in all the 3 targeted children, but an increase in the use of high-risk behaviors during peer-group entry.
Through the probe data collected, it was revealed that all 3 children demonstrated a slight increase in usage of props accompanying high-risk behaviors.
All the children continued with the using props and high-risk behaviours during the withdrawal phrase (after treatment phrase), with little or no change in them between these 2 phrases.
Through the treatment phrase, all the children demonstrated increased cooperative play, with 2 of the 3 children showing rather immediate improvements with the introduction of treatment. In addition, cooperative play was showed more in all the children, than solitary play during the treatment phrase. At the end of the treatment phrase, all 3 children demonstrated levels of cooperative play approaching, with 1 of them exceeding in progress as compared to the other 2.

(iii) How will Annie benefit from this intervention

I believe that Annie will benefit greatly from this intervention. Appropriate guidance will be provided for her to ease into this intervention over time. From that, Annie will be able to learn and practice appropriate behaviours that allow her to be more easily accepted into peer- group interactions or play. In addition, it will decrease the frequency of her using inappropriate behaviors such as biting – which will definitely cause injuries in her peers – in social situations in the future. With the change in her behavior as this intervention is implemented, it will also help Annie’s friends to be more accepting towards her as time passes.

In a nutshell, through this intervention, Annie will be able to learn social skills such as appropriate behaviours in initiating social interactions, communicating with others, and engaging in cooperative play.

(iv) Suggestions to making adjustments to cater to the needs of the child and to facilitate integration of the child / the intervention activity into classroom

Before introducing this intervention, there would be a need to provide an explanation of this to the rest of the children in the classroom. This is so that they will better understand the reasons as to why Annie demonstrates certain inappropriate behaviour sometimes, which thus require her to undergo this intervention so that appropriate facilitation and help is provided for her.

I would implement this intervention on a regular basis and apply it as and whenever I can, when the opportunity arises. This is so that Annie gets to practice the techniques and behaviours learnt in this intervention as often as possible. This would definitely to speed up her improvement.

In addition, I will form a partnership with Annie’s speech therapist and parents so that appropriate interventions can be facilitated for Annie to the best possibility. By working with Annie’s parents and speech therapist, opinions and observations about her progress and disability can be provided through different perspectives. This would help in formulating more effective strategies in helping Annie with her behavioural and social difficulties.


Reference:

Beilinson, J.S. & Olswang, L.B. (2003, April). Facilitating Peer-Group Entry in Kindergartners With Impairments in Social Communication. Language, Speech, & Hearing Services in Schools, 34(2), 154. Retrieved 1 September , 2009, from Education Research Complete database.