Teaching social skills to preschool children in a special education program

The purpose of this study was to teach social skills to handicapped preschool children to help promote successful transitions to mainstreaming with nonhandicapped peers. There were 100 handicapped preschool children, 69 males and 31 females, ranging in age from 36 to 58 months. Seventy-five percent of the subjects were classified as speech and language impaired. The remaining 25% were diagnosed with other handicapping conditions. Subjects were assigned by intact classes to one of three conditions: (1) social skills intervention in school, (2) intervention in school and home, and (3) control group. There was a total of 12 classes with four classes in each condition. Thirty-four children were in Condition 1, and 33 each in Conditions 2 and 3. Subjects were assigned to conditions by matching classes according to intelligence scores obtained from the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities, using the mean General Cognitive Index for each class. After matching, classes were randomly assigned to each condition. Subjects were rated before and after intervention using the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales with teachers and parents as respondents; Achenbach Child Behavior Checklists with teachers and parents; Comprehension subtest; Face Recognition subtest; Sociometrics; and Social rankings. The intervention program was presented to each child for 30 one-half hour sessions for a total of 15 hours over a period of four months. Analyses of Covariance were used to analyze the data. Levels of significance were set at {dollar}{lcub}cal L{rcub}{dollar} experiment wise {dollar}le{dollar}.05, using the Dunn-Bonferroni correction ({dollar}{lcub}cal L{rcub}sb{lcub}rm pc{rcub}{dollar} {dollar}le{dollar}.0125). In Condition 1, children performed significantly better than the control group in the Socialization domain, F(1,94) = 35.83, p {dollar}<{dollar}.001; in Interpersonal Relationships, F(1,94) = 21.50, p {dollar}<{dollar}.001; and in Coping Skills, F(1,94) = 66.27, p {dollar}<{dollar}.001. In Condition 2, children performed significantly better than the control group in the Socialization domain, F(1,94) = 24.15, p {dollar}<{dollar}.001; in Interpersonal Relationships, F(1,94) = 11.13, p {dollar}<{dollar}.001; in Play and Leisure, F(1,94) = 8.38, p {dollar}<{dollar}.01; and in Coping Skills, F(1,94) = 34.04, p {dollar}<{dollar}.001. Parents rated the children significantly higher than did the teachers in the Socialization domain pretests, t(84) = 12.23, p {dollar}<{dollar}.001, and posttests, t(69) = 7.05, p {dollar}<{dollar}.001; and on the Child Behavior Checklists pretests, t(84) = 7.33, p {dollar}<{dollar}.001, and posttests, t(69) = 4.05, p {dollar}<{dollar}.001. The continuance of the social skills training with all the children was recommended with increased parental participation.