Generalization of Social Skills Intervention for Preschoolers with Social Delays

In this study we used an individualized, on-site, consultation model to instruct classroom aides how to teach social interaction skills to five young children with social delays and ten non-delayed peers. Four aides were trained to teach five social skill strategies to triads of preschoolers. Each triad included one preschool child with social delays and two socially competent peers. We assessed the effects of this instruction on the target students, use of the social strategies and the generalization of the skills to non-trained free play settings. Aides used token system strategies to increase the target students, social interactions in the free play settings. The results indicate that the target students' increased their level of social interaction with peers during the triad situation but an increase in the generalization setting did not occur until the teacher-directed token system component was implemented. Social validation data indicated that the classroom aides found the procedures easy to implement, appropriate for preschool settings, and effective.