NASYITAH BINTE YASSIN (GOUP B)

Case 1
Intervention on Annie’s Social Skills

Improving the Social Communication Skills of At-Risk Preschool Children in a Play Context by Craig-Unkefer, L., & Kaiser, A. (2002)

According to Gresham and Elliot as cited in Denham, Hatfield, Smethurst, Tan & Tribe (2006), social skills is defined as “socially acceptable behaviours that enable a person to interact effectively with others and avoid socially unacceptable responses from others”.

It is evident in Case 1 that Annie lacks of social skills. She displays some behavioral and social difficulties like biting her classmates, which is inappropriate.

Therefore, an appropriate intervention that could be carried out to improve Annie’s social skills would be through play. This intervention speaks of improving the social communication skills of at-risk preschool children in a play context.

(i) The Intervention
Six preschoolers at risk for language delays and behavior problems between the ages of 3 years 5 months and 3 years 11 months participated in this study, which was designed to observe the effects of a three-component intervention on the children’s social-communicative interactions. In a multiple baseline design across three dyads, children were taught to (a) plan their play, (b) use conversational social interactions strategies and (c) self evaluate their play interactions.

The study was designed to address the issues that most young children might face due to social communication delays, such as peer rejection. Consequently, children who faced peer rejection due to their inability to express their needs and wants may begin to act more aggressively or display noncompliant behaviors (in which Annie displays at time). Therefore, early intervention to teach language and social skills in the context of peer interactions may be important to prevent problems in peer relationships.

Another purpose of the study “was to determine the effects of a multicomponent intervention to promote language learning and to support communication, social interaction and play for children at risk for language and behavior problems” (Craig-Unkefer & Kaiser, 2002, p.4).

In addition, play is the principal context in which preschool children acquire and practice skills crucial in developing social competence where they gain knowledge of resolving disputes, persuade peers to change play activities and engage in role play. Also, peer interaction can provide opportunities to gain negotiation skills, role-taking ability, and popularity with peers.

(ii) Its effectiveness
In this intervention, the descriptive utterances’ in all of the six children improved. They were also able to communicate better with one another through acknowledgement, verbally and non-verbally. Their average of use of requests during the intervention increased in all children. All children increased in their use of different words and could sustain longer conversations with others. Even though two of the children were reported to exhibit problem behaviors before the intervention, no negative behaviors were noticed in any of the two children or even for the rest.

Another separate intervention programme that was carried out was to view the reliability and validity of play-based observations and to see the relationship between PLAY behavior observation system and standardized measures of cognitive and social skills. Even though the focus in this intervention was different, it did mentioned that play can improve children’s social competence and skills. Farmer-Dougan and Kaszuba (1999) stated that children’s social skills can be assessed through play. This intervention was done with 42 pre-school children between the ages of three and five years. In the intervention, children who engaged in more sophisticated play behaviors were better able to intitiate conversations and play activities, give and acknowledge compliments, being more cooperative and participate in group activities, which aids to increased social skills development.

To further support the findings, Peter (2003) indicated that “In pretend play with others, children consolidate social customs and codes of behavior, as well as projecting into imaginary situations and exploring new possibilities and consequences.”(p.23).

(iii) Personal evaluation how the child will benefit from this intervention
I believe that Annie will benefit from this intervention, from the fact that she lacks of social and behavioral skills and can be shy and withdrawn at time. In this intervention, the interventionists provide opportunities for the children to engage in conversations and interaction where they provide the setting and materials. When Annie and her classmates are exposed to such opportunities, they will be able to explore various settings and be able to interact with one another. Through pretend play, Annie’s friends will be able to understand Annie’s condition when they are exposed and educated about her disabilities (advocating for inclusion) appropriately when such theme is being practiced. During the second component of the intervention, the children will play with the toys and materials provided, with the interventionists to guide the children by using verbal redirects and reflective statements to sustain and maintain the children’s play interaction. This would be beneficial to Annie as she requires the support and facilitation from adults for her to develop her social skills. The last component is for the child to self-evaluate the play and interaction process in which Annie can reflect on what she had improved on etc.

(iv) Your suggestions how you can make adjustments to cater to the needs of the
child and to facilitate integration of the child / the intervention activity into
your classroom.
Bearing in mind, Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (CRP), the adjustments I would make are:

I would scale down the level of difficulty. As Annie has speech impairments and communication difficulties as well, it is going to be rather challenging for her to follow the above stated intervention religiously. As an educator, factors like non-verbal interaction and unspoken communication can be taken into considerations. I believe that once the opportunities are provided for Annie to practice any form of interactions, her social skills will improve steadily.

The number of words that children used in the intervention was an average number of 70 words. However, this does not mean that Annie must be performing at the same rate and utter an approximate number of 70 words in 10 minutes time. The number of words she might use can be much lesser than 70 words in the beginning, because most importantly, the purpose of the intervention is to see how she improves from one session to the next.

Other support like books and bringing the children to fieldtrips allow them to have concrete and meaningful experiences where they can explore and discover new facts and knowledge. With this, Annie’s and the other children’s learning can be extended based on their prior knowledge. Therefore, the materials, setting and theme provided must be of children’s interest and reflects on their prior knowledge. This is so that Annie and her classmates can better function as active participants and can relate the materials, setting and theme to what they have authentically experience during the fieldtrips, books, etc. As such, when the opportunities are presented to Annie for her to interact with her classmates, she will be able to share similar experiences which slowly builds on her interaction and social skills.



References:
Craig-Unkefer, L., & Kaiser, A. (2002, Spring2002). Improving the Social Communication Skills of At-Risk Preschool Children in a Play Context. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 22(1), 3. Retrieved September 8, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.

Denham, A., Hatfield, S., Smethurst, N., Tan, E., & Tribe, C. (2006, March 1). The Effect of Social Skills Interventions in the Primary School. Educational Psychology in Practice, 22(1), 33-51. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EJ734495) Retrieved September 9, 2009, from ERIC database.

Farmer-Dougan, V., & Kaszuba, T. (1999, December 1). Reliability and Validity of Play-based Observations: Relationship between the PLAY Behaviour Observation System and the Standardized Measures of Cognitive and Social Skills. Educational Psychology: An International Journal of Experimental Educational Psychology, 19(4), 429-40. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EJ631687) Retrieved September 8, 2009, from ERIC database.

Peter, M. (2003, March). Drama, narrative and early learning. British Journal of Special Education, 30(1), 21-27. Retrieved September 8, 2009, doi:10.1111/1467-8527.00277