Teaching Social and Emotional Competence in Early Childhood

This study evaluated the impact of a social skills curriculum on the social behaviors of students in two pre-kindergarten classrooms. Participating were 30 students in a program based at a university child study center. The average age of the participants was four years ten months. The income levels of the families varied from low social economic status to high middle economic status. Two examiners independently completed the Social Skills and Attitude Scale (SSAS) for each child. The examiners observed the children and recorded children's pre and post intervention behaviors on a checklist. The study yielded positive evidence that the social skills instruction and activities in the "Connecting with Others: Lessons for Teaching Social and Emotional Competence" did make a meaningful difference. Paired sample t-tests were run on all Pre:/Post: test pairs in order to measure significant change in social skills behaviors over the course of the intervention. With the exception of Shares ideas, t-test results indicate significant change in social skills on all but one of the pretest/posttest pairs. (Contains 2 tables.)