Increasing Peer-Directed Social-Communication Skills of Children Enrolled in Head Start

Abstract

The current study assessed the effects of an intervention to improve the social-communicative interactions of six children at-risk for delays in language and social skills enrolled in Head Start. A multiple-baseline design across three mixed-gender dyads was used to determine the effects of a three-component intervention on children's verbal interactions and play. During the baseline, intervention, and generalization phases, children's social-communicative behaviors were videotaped, coded, and summarized. When the plan-play-report intervention was introduced in each dyad, children's social-communicative behaviors increased. Increases occurred in descriptive statements, requests, and language complexity and diversity. During the intervention, children also engaged in more complex play behaviors. Children generalized changes in social communication, interaction, and play to untrained peers from different classrooms.