Richard E. Shores

The effects of amount and type of teacher-child interaction on child-child interaction during free-play

Social interactions between preschool behaviorally handicapped children were measured under three experimental conditions during free-play: (a) active teacher involvement in free-play, (b) no teacher involvement in free-play, and (c) teacher structured free-play. Significantly more child-child interactions occurred during teacher structured free-play than in either of the other two conditions, with the no teacher involvement condition producing significantly more child-child interactions when compared to the active teacher involvement condition. Additionally, significantly more teacher-child interactions occurred during the active teacher involvement condition than in either of the other two conditions, with nonsignificant differences in teacher-child interaction between the no teacher involvement and the teacher structured conditions. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for ameliorating social interaction deficits among young behaviorally handicapped children.

Increasing social interactions of severely handicapped autistic children

A peer-initiation training procedure was implemented across multiple peer trainers to investigate social interactions between severely withdrawn autistic children and their nonhandicapped peers. For one subject, substantial increases in spontaneous interactions with training and nontraining peers occurred after the peer-initiation procedure was applied across two training exemplars. Spontaneous social interactions continued even after the training procedure was removed. Although experimental control was established with the second subject during training, spontaneous interactions during nontraining periods were primarily with training peers. The results contribute to an emerging data base on the social interactions of autistic and severely withdrawn handicapped children and on peer- initiation training procedures.

Competency Based Special Education Teacher Training

This review takes a critical look at a major component of competency based teacher education: the derivation and validation of teacher competencies. The available literature indicates that teacher competencies tend to be derived from “expert” opinion rather than the direct observation of teacher behavior, that they often are not behaviorally stated or evaluated as to whether or not they have a positive impact on child performance, and that few teacher educators or researchers are attempting to validate competencies empirically before including them in teacher education programs. Research strategies to remediate these deficits are suggested.

Overview of Research on Social Interaction: A Historical and Personal Perspective.

This article presents a review of research on social interaction that was conducted by the author, students, and colleagues, primarily at George Peabody College for Teachers of Vanderbilt University. The article traces the history and presents both successes and failures of our research in gaining information regarding the development of social interaction skills of handicapped (i.e., behaviorally disordered and mentally retarded) children. Several suggestions are made for future research and development areas. The article does not represent a comprehensive review, but rather a historical overview of a program of research conducted at Peabody. Each publication cited has incorporated related research from sources other than that completed at Peabody. In order to illustrate the progression of our program of research, the literature presented is consciously limited. The author presents this article as a personal perspective which should not necessarily be considered the perspective of other investigators involved in the research.

Social Reciprocity: A Review of Research and Educational Implications

This paper analyzes the potential contributions of research on social reciprocity to the assessment and remediation of social withdrawal among educationally handicapped preschool children. The studies reviewed clearly suggest that social reciprocity is a phenomenon that occurs during interaction among adults and normal and exceptional preschool children. It is suggested here that educational strategies designed to increase positive social interaction be based on a reciprocal conceptualization of social behavior. Such a theoretical framework is reflected in the following procedures: (a) the use of observational strategies that are sensitive to who gives what to whom, when, and with what effect; and (b) the development of intervention efforts that rely on the eliciting effect of social stimuli to accelerate the social responses of withdrawn children.

Comparison of Procedures for Promoting Reading Proficiency of Two Children with Behavioral and Learning Disorders

This study investigated the effects of two discrete teaching strategies for developing proficiency in oral reading. The use of teacher praise contingent upon pupil correct responses was compared with teacher modeling of words erred. The results clearly indicate that, for two learning/behavior disordered youngsters approaching a proficiency level in oral reading, manipulation of reinforcement schedules was demonstrated to be the more effective approach.

Social interaction development among behaviorally handicapped preschool children: Research and educational implications

Literature is reviewed that documents the effectiveness of a behavioral approach for increasing the social behaviors of behaviorally handicapped preschool children. However, this literature also suggests that reciprocal interaction between target subjects and significant others seldom generalized beyond treatment settings. The importance of developing positive, reciprocal interaction has been well documented. The results of observational studies suggest that with respect to both quantity and quality of interaction, the child creates his own social environment. For example, the passive, withdrawn child is the more frequent recipient of social rejection than is the more socially active child; the physically aggressive child receives more hostile social bids from peers than less aggressive youngsters; and, of course, the child who initiates positive interaction with peers tends to receive more positive social attention than less socially adept youngsters. Thus, childrens behavior patterns tend to set the occasion for that kind of social approach by peers that validates, in a sense, their own approach to peers. If affective education for young handicapped children is to become a reality, additional research is necessary to identify those response patterns that set the occasion for positive reciprocal interaction.

Antecedent and Contingent Modeling to Teach Basic Sight Vocabulary to Learning Disabled Children

The results of this study support the validity and reliability of the TOLD subtests when they are used with language-impaired children. A group of children who had been classified as having deviant language performed significantly more poorly than a matched group of normal children on all seven subtests skills. Children with articulation problems were inferior to normal speakers on all but two receptive tasks. Even more interesting is the fact that the TOLD results appear to confirm the clinical classifications of the language-impaired child, since those with deviant language performed significantly worse than those with articulation and sentence imitation.

Developing Social Responses in Two Profoundly Retarded Children

The effect of training upon the development of social interaction responses in two profoundly retarded children was investigated. Both children showed marked gains in the trained responses, with one child also demonstrating limited generalization of the responses to a new setting. Response generalization to a child not involved in training occurred to a limited extent.

CHANGES IN PEER VERBALIZATIONS ACCOMPANYING INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP CONTINGENCIES TO MODIFY ON-TASK BEHAVIOR

Group and individual contingency arrangements were alternately applied to modify the on-task performance of 5 behavior-disordered children. Concurrent records were maintained regarding the childrens task-relevant (facilitating) and non-task-relevant (inhibiting) verbalizations to peers. Both contingency arrangements were effective for controlling the childrens on-task behavior while only the group contingency was associated with changes in their verbalizations. Specifically, the group contingency, as compared to the baseline and the individual contingency, was accompanied by a significant increase in facilitating verbalizations by peers. Moreover, the group contingency, in relation to the baseline but nor the individual contingency, resulted in significantly fewer inhibiting verbalizations. The individual contingency did not affect either facilitating or inhibiting verbalizations of peers.