George Peabody College for Teachers. Today the education of all children is a matter of public policy. This "zero reject" concept (Lilly,. 1971) sterns from recent ...
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Peer-Mediated Social Initiations: A Procedure for Promoting Social Behavior with Mainstreamed Children PHILLIPS. STRAIN' Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute Nashville.Tennessee
ROBERT A. GABLE National Children's Rehabilitation Center
JO M. HENDRICKSON Social Competence Intervention Project George Peabody College for Teachers Today the education of all children is a matter of public policy. This "zero reject" concept (Lilly, 1971) sterns from recent judicial imperatives and legislative mandates (e.g.. Gilhool, 1973, 1976; Lippmann & Goldberg. 1974). Such action has resulted in increasing numbers of children, heretofore excluded from regular education services, being placed in regular classrooms. In the broadest sense this movement is commonly referred to as "mainstreaming." The concept of mainstreaming, simply stated, implies that the regular public education system assumes primary responsibility for educating all children, including those formerly excluded on the basis of handicapping condition(s} (Keogh & Levitt, 1976). It follows that regular educators are increasingly being required to plan and provide instruction for children presenting a variety of social and academic deficiencies. To date. however. few regular educators have been trained to provide the specialized instruction necessary to attain this goal (e.g., Keogh & Levitt, 1976). Critics of segregated placement (e.g., Christoplos & Renz, 1969; Dunn. 1968; Lilly, 1970) contend that placement in self-contained special education classrooms inadvertently serves to maintain the behavioral characteristics such placement was intended to ameliorate. And yet, as Kaufman, Gottlieb, Agard, and Kuklc (1975) have asserted, integrated placement alone is not sufficientto insure academic achievement or social acceptance of exceptional children. In their view, there are at least three critical aspects of mainstream education: (a) temporal, (b) instructional, and (c) social integration. To date, the area of social integration has received limited attention regarding strategies to improve the interactions between handicapped and non handicapped children (Mosley, 1978). The focus of this article, therefore, is on approaches lor managing and dealing with the sociai behavior of mainstreamed children. Discussion centers on approaches that have been shown to be effective in modifying the behavior of children broadly catergorized as exceptional. Indeed. a wide variety of teaching tactics have been demonstrated effective in improving the social and play repertoire of individuals categorized as mentally retarded (Wehman, 1977); behaviorally disordered (Strain, Shores, & Tirnrn, 1977); learning disabled (Cooke & Apolloni, 1976); multihandicapped (Gable, Hendrickson, & Strain, 1978); and autistic (Ragland, Kerr, & Strain, 1978).
'Reprints should be requested from the first author.
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In terms of general education applicability, itshould be pointed out initially that the vast majority of these behavioral tactics require a one-to-one instructional format. When teachers are responsible for the education of several children simultaneously, the possibility of capitalizing on such direct tutorial teaching!leaming formats is extremely limited.Teachers must look, therefore, for instructional alternatives ifone-to-one instruction appears to be required. In mainstreamed settings, one readily available resource for social behavior programming is classroom peers. In the followinq sections, we describe naturally occurring interaction processes between children that can be programmed to enhance the social repertoire of handicapped children. Specifically, peer influence as mediated by social reciprocitywillbe reviewed. Social reciprocity and peer behavior change. Considerable observational research has been conducted on the reciprocal quality of child-childinteraction. Lee (1973) observed that one year olds who responded contingently to their peers' social bids were sought out more frequently than infants who did not Additionally, a series of studies by Hartup and his colleagues highlights the reciprocal exchange of social behaviors between preschool children (Charlesworth & Hartup, 1967; Hartup & Coates, 1967; Hartup, Glazer & Charlesworth, 1967). These investigators observed four categories of behavior. 1) giving positive attention and approval; 2) giving affection and personal acceptance; 3) submission; and 4) token giving. Although these categories are identical to those described by Skinner (1953) as potentially reinforcing, no assessment was made of the functional relationship between these events and other child behaviors. In each study it was noted that the amount of positive behavior emitted toward peers was positively related to the amount of positive behavior received from peers. Similarly, in a recent, large-scale study by Greenwood, Walker, Todd, and Hops (l976) continuous recording procedures were employed to assess the social contacts of preschool children. Results indicated a .90 correlation between initiated positive behaviors and positive behaviors emitted in response to these overtures. The results of these observational studies indicate that children's behavior patterns help construct a predictable social environment. For example, the withdrawn child is seldom the recipient of positive social behavior from peers; the child who emits negative behavior toward peers tends to elicitnegative reactions from peers; and the child who actively initiates positve social bids toward peers tends to receive many positive social responses from agemates. Taken together, these data indicate that positive social initiations by children could be employed to increase the positive social behavior of withdrawn, handicapped classmates. Recent behavioral research confirms this proposition (Ragland, Kerr. & Strain, 1978; Strain, 1977; Strain, Kerr & Ragland, 1978: Strain, Shores, & Timm, 1977).
Functional analysis research on social reciprocity. In an initialstudy on social reciprocity as a therapeutic intervention, Strain, Shores, and Timm (1977) trained two nonhandicapped preschool boys to initiate positive social behavior with two triads of withdrawn, behaviorally disordered peers. The six target children were enrolled in a mainstream preschool program. It is important to note, however, that all children were selected on the basis of observational data that indicated that they rarelv interacted positively with other children, handicapped or not, in the classroom. Both peer trainers were given four 2U-minute training sessions in which they were taught specificbehaviors that they were to use to initiate play with their handicapped peers. Verbal behaviors such as, "Come play," "Let's play school," "Throw the ball," and gestures such as passing a toy were taught. A role-playing strategy was used with the experimenter assuming the social behavior pattern of the handicapped children. Appropriate social initiationsby the peer trainer were either praised or ignored. After five seconds of ignoring, the experimenter explained to the peer trainers that many approaches to play would likelybe ignored by the handicapped children, but they were to keep trying to initiate play. This procedure seems essential to assure that the social behaviors of peer trainers will not be punished, and eventually extinguished by initial peer rejection. Within a withdrawal of treatment design, the peer trainers made few social initiations to withdrawn peers during the initial baseline phase. Peers increased their level of initiationsduring Intervention, reduced initiationsduring a second baseline, and again increased their level of initiations in a final intervention phase. For all subjects, positive behavior greatly increased in response to increased levels of initiations. Children who
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engaged in the most social activity during the initial baseline phase were most responsive to this intervention. In a second study in this series, Strain (1977) examined the replicablityof this peer-initiation tactic and the generalization of behavior change across time and settings. Three behaviorally disordered preschool boys and one nonhandicapped age-peer participated. All subjects were enrolled in a mainstream setting. The peer trainer participated in training sessions similar to those employed in Strain et al. (1977). Allexperimental sessions during the withdrawal of treatment design took place in a small playroom furnished with gross- and fine-motor toys, dress-up clothes, and kitchen area items. The generalization sessions took place in the subjects' classroom. On 25 of the 40 days of the study, generalization sessions took place immediately following training. On the other days, there was a 23-hour time lapse between training and generalization assessment. Training outcomes from this study closely replicated results reported by Strain et al. (1977). For one handicapped child whose baseline of positive social behavior was nearly zero, the intervention tactic was minimally effective. Generalization data indicated that positive behavior change exhibited during training continued across time and settings. It is important to note, however, that positive behavior during the generalization sessions was approximately one-half the level observed during training. The results of these two studies on preschool handicapped children and nonhandicapped peers indicate that the reciprocity, or occasion-settingfunction of social stimuli may be employed to enhance the social repertoire of withdrawn preschool children. Additionally,the peer trainers were consistent in their adherence to initial training and experimenter's instructions across phase changes. Data on children with extremely limited social repertoires suggest that other, more highly programmed training tactics (i.e.. prompting and differential reinforcement) may be required to produce positive social interaction. In another study in this series, Ragland, Kerr,and Strain (1978) were concerned with promoting positive social behavior in school-age autistic children. The subjects were observed to engage in active physical withdrawal and aggression toward peers, whereas previously studied children were more "passive" in their soclalwithdrewal. Again, an age-peer was trained to emit social initiations toward handicapped children. The experimental sessions in the withdrawal of treatment design were conducted in a playroom equipped with toys that promote cooperative play (e.g., telephones, balls, trucks, cooking utensils, puppets). Unlike earlier studies, the peer trainer began intervention at different points in time for each subject. This multiple baseline procedure was employed to determine whether accelerated levels of social initiations directed toward one child would result in increased positive behavior by children not under intervention procedures. One might suspect that intervention applied to one subject would afford other children the opportunity to observe and imitate positive social behavior being modeled by the peer trainer. Increases in peer initiations resulted in a quick acceleration In the frequency of all subjects' positive social behavior. For two of the subjects who were most oppositional to social bids, negative behaviors also showed a slight increase during intervention conditions. In no case did intervention applied to one child result in a "spillover" of treatment effect on children not under intervention at that time. In a final study, Strain, Kerr, and Ragland (1978) evaluated the relative efficacyof prompting and social reinforcement versus social initiations in promoting the positive social behavior of school-age autistic children. An age-peer was trained to implement both intervention procedures. Results on all four target subjects revealed equal treatment effects for both interventions. Clinical Application Issues. In summary, research on the social initiation procedure offers a promising approach for promoting positive social interaction. The successful implementation of such an approach requires that a number of issues be addressed by the practitioner. First, research to date seems to indicate that children must have some positive social behaviors in their repertoire ifthe social initiation tactic is to be successful. Exactly what behaviors, and their frequency of occurrence are yet to be determined (Strain & Carr, 1975). It would seem that some appropriate language behavior is central to reciprocal interaction (Hester & Hendrickson, 1977). In those studies conducted by Strain and his colleagues, most successful initiations (those followed by a positive peer response) were vocal-verbal. However, the observational procedure did not provide an assessment of the precise
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verbal topographies emitted by subjects. Since vocal-verbal behaviors do not occur frequently among handicapped preschool children (Guralnick & Paul-Brown, 1977), some stimulus novelty effect may account for the responsiveness of the handicapped children to vocal-verbal bids to play (Cantor & Cantor, 1964; King, 1966; Strain & Cooke, 1976). In a related study, Mueller (1972) identified particular behavioral parameters that were predictive of successful social initiations between normal 3Yz - 5% year old children. Data indicated that 62% of an utterances were successful; i.e., they obtained a verbal response from the partners. Another 23% were followed by visualorientation by the listener to the speaker. The most reliable predictor was visual attention of the listener prior to an utterance. Failure to gain reciprocal responding was most often associated with grammatically-poor speech. Other behaviors may also set the occasion for reciprocal interaction. For example, Cooke & Apolloni (1976) taught school-age, learning disabled children to smile at each other, share toys, make appropriate physical contacts, and engage in complimentary comments. Using a modeling procedure, these behaviors were taught to criterion in a training setting. In a generalization period that immediately followed, the target subjects and other learning disabled children were observed. Not only did the positive behaviors of targetsubjects maintain, but untrained chldren also began to engage in these same behaviors. One might suspect that the target responses set the occasion for reciprocal responding by peers; however, the data collection system did not permit an analysis of reciprocal behavior patterns. What seems needed at this point is a thorough delineation of the response topographies having a high probability of setting the occasion for and maintaining interaction (Strain & Shores, 1977). Another issue related to the successfullmpleinentation of the social Initiationtactic concerns the generalization of positive behavior changes beyond the training environment. Research Indicates that positive social behaviors developed by this tacticdo generalize to nontreatment settings; however, the level of behavior change has been considerably less than that observed durmq training sessions. The precise level of generalization is doubtless a product of complex interactions between a number of factors. The first factor concerns the degree of handicap exhibited by target children. In peer- and adult-mediated studies, the level of generalized social behavior appears, in part, to be a function of subjects overall behavioral development (Gable, Hendrickson, & Strain, 1978). For example, studies employing severely or profoundly retarded and autistic children have met with minimal success in promoting generalized behavior change. Recent research on the mechanisms of generalization indicate that severely handicapped children's lack of behavior change across time and settings may be a function of their responding (simultaneously) to the presence of irrelevant as well as relevant stimuli (Rincover & Koegel, 1975). A second factor related to generalized social behavior change relates to the difference between generalization and the maintenance of behavior in the generalization setting(s) (Koegel & Rincover, 1977). Behavior generalization refers to the initiallevel of responding in the nontreatment envlronment(s). Maintenance of behavior refers to the level of responding over time or trials in the nontreatment environment(s). In efforts involving social initiations, it appears that generalization, as defined above, can be expected to occur. However, the maintenance of behavior, which is controlled by a separate set of variables, is less certain. Research by Koegel and Rincover (1977) indicates that maintenance of treatment effects can be enhanced by reducing physical and programmatic differences between training and generalization settings. For example, practitioners might consider the systematic, response-thinning of social initiations, training across setting and peer trainers, and/or controlling the social behaviors of nontrained peers in the generalization setting(s). Summary and Discussion. Often, adult-implemented treatment programs pose numerous practical problems. Typically, they require the continuous presence of an attentive adult. Given the high pupil-teacher ratios found In most school settings, it isquestionable how often teachers can spend large amounts of time systematically observing and reinforcing the actions of individual children. Research and advances made in applied behavior analysis and educational technology indicate that employing peers in social behavior training programs could serve to offset the disadvantages of
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adult-mediated social behavior training strategies. Moreover, a growing body of behavioral research in special education and related fields is now available to serve as the basis for the development of a technology of social interaction programming. Precise methods for training peers as intervention agents. monitoring behavior change, and fostering generalized social responding are described in the literature and currently being researched. Although considerable work remains to be done, particularly with regard to teacher training procedures and materials, a number of conclusions can be tentatively presented regarding integrated programming and peer-mediated interventions. First, it appears that without specific programming, mainstreaming does not result in the social intergration of handicapped and non-handicapped children. Second, while investigators have shown non-handicapped preschool children as well as mildly handicapped school-age youngsters are remarkably consistent intervention agents and capable of applying. at times, complex social behavior intervention procedures, widespread application and utilization of this information has not been achieved. The development of an empirically-based technology of social behavior training, although critically needed, is still in an embryonic stage. Similarly, the development of replicable teacher training programs which address social behavior training issues remains in urgent need of further research. Finally,review of behavioral research on social skill training suggests that social rejection of handicapped children in integrated settings may be ameliorated by the social initiation tactics. REFERENCES Cantor, J. and Cantor, G. Observing behavior in children as a function of stimulus novelty. Child Development,
1964,35,110-128. Charlesworth. Rand Hartup, W.W. Positive sodal reinforcement In the nursery school peer group. Child
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Kaufman, M., Gotllieb,J., Agard, J.• and Kukic. M. Mainstreaming: Toward an explicationof the construct. In E. Meyen, G. Vergason, and R. Whelan (Eds.), Altematives for teaching exceptional children. Denver, Colorado: Love, 1975. King, M. Interpersonal relations In preschool children and average approach distance. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 1966, 109, 109-116. Kirby, F.D. and Toler, H.C. Modification of preschool Isolatebehavior:A case study. Joumal 0/AppliedBehavior Analysis, 1970, 3, 309-314. Koegh. B. and Levitt. M. Special education in the mainstream: A confrontation of limitations? Focus on Exceptional Children, 1976. 8, I-II. Koegel, R.L. and Rincover, A Research on the difference between generalization and maintenance In extratherapy responding. Joumal of AppliedBehaviorAnalysis, 1977, 10, 1-12. Lee. LC. Social encounters of Infants: The beginningsof popularity.Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the International Society for the Study of BehavioralDevelopment.Ann Arbor, Michigan. 1973.
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Phillip S. Stroin is Supervisor of Research, Children and Youth Services, Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute, 3411 Belmont Blvd. Nashville, Tennessee (37215). Robert A. Gable is Director of Education, National Children's Rehabilitation Center, Leesburg, Virginia. Jo M. Hendrickson is Research Assodate, Sodal Competence Intervention Project, George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, Tennessee.
