The Effects of Social Skill Instruction and Self-Monitoring on Game-Related Behaviors of Adolescents with Emotional or Behavioral Disorders

Three ninth-grade male students with emotional or behavioral disorders were taught the game-related social skills of appropriate peer reactions, appropriate reactions to losing, and appropriate reactions to winning. A skills-training model involving social modeling, behavioral rehearsal, and behavior transfer was used to teach the skills. Self-monitoring was employed to help the new skills persist over time and transfer to the gym setting. A multiple-baseline design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the training for each student in both the classroom and the gym. The results indicated that students improved in their game-related social skills. Greater overall improvements were found in the classroom.