The Effect of Social Skill Training on the Peer Interaction of Preschool Hearing-Impaired Children

The following study evaluated the effectiveness of a social skills intervention program for preschool hearing-impaired children. A combined multiple baseline-reversal design was used across two groups of three children. Activities were designed that created opportunities for practicing social skills accompanied by instructor modeling and prompting and data on positive and negative interaction were obtained during instructor-directed activities and free play probes. Results showed that (a) positive peer interaction increased for both groups of children, (b) sharing increased more than conversation, (c) positive interaction generalized to the free play setting while the intervention was in effect, and (d) positive interaction decreased when the intervention ceased. The relationship between linguistic competence and social interactions is discussed, and suggestions are made for future research.