Joanna Smogorzewska: Developing Social Skills through Play the Effectiveness of Play Time/ Social Time Program - Slide presentation

Knowledge Database

• Slide Presentation for the lecture of: Joanna SmogorzewskaAcademy of Special Education, Poland

• Topic of lecture: Developing Social Skills through Play the Effectiveness of Play Time/ Social Time Program

• The lecture was given at Beit Issie Shapiro’s 6th International Conference on Disabilities - Israel

• Year: 2015

Developing Social Skills through Play: the Effectiveness of the “Play Time/Social Time” program

Joanna SmogorzewskaGrzegorz SzumskiUniversity of Special Education, Warsaw, Poland

Why we study the effectiveness of programs which

develop social skills?

- It is important to use such methods which effectiveness

was proved empirically,

- In Poland, despite a great need, there is a lack of programs which are design to develop social skills of young children. Especially, there is very few programs, which can be used in integrative and inclusive groups.

Play Time/Social Time Program (Odom et al., 1997)

1. For who?

- Children aged 3 to 5(6),

- Children, who learn in inclusive, integrative or special preschool,

- Children with and without disability; children who suffer from the lack of social skills, children at risk of developmental problems.

2. Main aims of the program:

- Developing social skills,

- Teaching proper interactions with peers,

- Increasing young children’s social competence.

3. The method:

- Teaching proper behaviours via imitating behaviours of peers without disability,

- Modifying environment (e.g. Designing special places for playing, giving ideas for mildly structuralised play, integrating children with and without disability),

3. The method:

- Focusing on the child (first of all on the child with disability):

• Structured play in pairs,

• Play encouragement through focusing on children who are the main targets of the program,

• Reinforcement of positive behaviours,

• Assessment of interactions between children.

4. Benefits of the program

(according to our earlier results):

- Teaching proper behaviours in natural environment, learning from more competent peers (which is more effective than learning from adults),

- Widening the repertoire of children’s plays,

- Increasing frequency of social interactions of pre-schoolers with disability,

- Increasing the number of prosocial behaviours and the willingness of participations in interactions among children with disabilities as well as among children without disability,

- Easy implementation - the program can be implemented as planned actions because it is based on materials which are available in preschools’ rooms.

The assessment of effectiveness

- Repeated (three times) assessment of development of children’s social skills (Teacher’s Impression Scale (Odom et al., 1997), Cronbach’s Alfa = .97 [16 items], Taxonomy of Problematic Social Situations (Dodge et. al., 1985), Cronbach’s Alfa = .97 [44 items]) (change in time),

- Repeated (three times) assessment of development of children’s “theory of mind” (change in time), Cronbach’s Alfa = .66 [7 items],

- Results’ comparison between children in experimental and control groups (differences between groups).

Sample

- 10 preschools in Warsaw, Poland,

- In summary 10 experimental groups and 10 control groups,

- 249 children age 3 to 6 (M = 4.7, SD = 0.99), with and without disability.

Sample

128121

Experimental(Play Time/ Social Time)

Control

Sample

Children with Disability: children with ASD, ID, hearing and

visual impairment, and physical disability

Social Skills 1 (Teacher’s Impression Scale)

Play Time/ Social Time Control0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

56.54(17.73)

58.72 (17.86)

59.81 (16.27)

60.96(16.15)

68.11(12.46)

63.77(14.89) Measurement 1

Measurement 2Measurement 3

Time: F(2, 464) = 154.50; p = .0001; eta2 = 0.4

Method: F(1, 232) = 0.027; p = ns.

Time*Method: F(2, 464) = 26.38; p = .0001; eta2 = 0.1

Social Skills 1 (Teacher’s Impression Scale) –

Children with Disability


10

20

30

40

50

60

70

44.17(15.93)

43.85 (14.10)

48.34(15.55)

48 (14.32)

58.1 (12.8)

49.23 (14.74)

Measurement 1Measurement 2Measurement 3

Time: F(2, 106) = 63.173; p = .0001; eta2 = 0.54

Method: F(1, 53) = 0.69; p = ns.


Social Skills 2 (Taxonomy of Problematic Social

Situations)

Play Time/ Social Time Control1.9

2

2.1

2.2

2.3

2.4

2.5

2.6

2.7

2.61(0.72) 2.57

(0.67)2.53

(0.72) 2.43(0.64)

2.2(0.67)

2.3(0.66)


Time: F(2, 494) = 91,42; p = .0001; eta2 = 0.27

Method: F(1, 247) = 0.01 ; p = ns.


Social Skills 2 (Taxonomy of Problematic Social

Situations) – Children with Disability


0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

2.89(0.59) 2.5

(0.52)2.79(0.66) 2.39

(0.45)2.42(0.55) 2.44

(0.46)


Time: F(2, 106) = 15.44; p = .0001; eta2 = 0.23

Method: F(1, 53) = 3.56; p = ns.


Theory of Mind


0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

3.09(1.59)

2.79(1.79)

3.61(1.68)

2.98(1.66)

3.95(1.57) 3.26

(1.68) Measurement 1Measurement 2Measurement 3

Time: F(2, 248) = 19.36; p = .0001; eta2 = 0.14

Method: F(1, 124) = 4,035; p = .04; eta2 = 0.03

Time*Method: F(2, 248) = 19.2; p = ns.

Theory of Mind – Children with Disability


0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

2.24(1.51)

1.93(1.88)

2.52(1.48) 2.07

(1.61)

2.88(1.48) 2.46

(1.77)Measurement 1Measurement 2Measurement 3

Time: F(2, 102) = 5.40; p = .006; eta2 = 0.096

Method: F(1, 51) = 0.97; p = ns.

Time*Method: F(2, 10) = 0.07; p = ns.

Conclusions

• In both groups there are positive changes in time in social skills and in theory of mind development,

• The changes are more positive in experimental group and the strength of the effect in the most cases is moderate,

• The results are especially positive for children with disabilities, who are the main targets of the program,

• It means that „Play Time/Social Time” is effective for developing social skills among preschool children.

Thank you very much for your attention

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Joanna Smogorzewska: Developing Social Skills through Play the Effectiveness of Play Time/ Social Time Program - Slide presentation