Improving Social Skills of Children with Developmental Delays

Author/Creator

Author/Creator ORCID

Date

2018-12-16

Department

Program

Masters of Education

Citation of Original Publication

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Abstract

Social skill deficits are prevalent in children who are identified with developmental delays. As they can vary in severity and do not always remit with age, it is critical to intervene as early as possible to offset potentially persistent deficits as children develop. Some common early intervention approaches include structured play, small group lessons, and video modeling. The purpose of this study was to determine whether social skills training lessons using video modeling and structured play would improve the appropriate play or group participation skills of four- to five–year-old PreK/early intervention students with developmental delays. Two groups of students were assessed regarding their level of development related to both skills before and after each group was provided three weeks of interventions to develop either appropriate play skills (Morning PreK) or group participation skills (Afternoon PreK). The dependent variables for the study were the degrees of change in appropriate play or group participation skills. The independent variable was the social skills training intervention. Results indicated that students exhibited improvement in appropriate play skills and group participation skills when provided with direct instruction of social skills training, but these gains did not differ significantly from those of the control group for either skill. The current findings suggest that social skills training is important and when implemented with intentional planning, can improve social skills in children with developmental delays. However, since the gains in skills in this study did not differ significantly for the treatment and control groups, further research is required to more clearly determine how to help young children develop these skills at school.