The Interpersonal Skills Program
OVERVIEW
The Interpersonal Skills Program was developed to teach interpersonal problem-solving skills to preschool aged children. This program teaches children skills for problem identification, the generation of alternative, and the evaluation of consequences in order to improve their social interactions and social development. The studies below found that the The Interpersonal Skills Program was effective in increasing the number of alternative solutions children could generate to solve a social problem. The program was also effective in increasing the amount of "relevant talk" during social interactions, meaning children were focused on the problems and their solutions.
This program uses a series of interactive activities to teach children social skills for interpersonal problem solving. Sessions usually last 15-20 minutes and take place four days a week during a 10-week period. Teachers use puppets to teach and model an interpersonal skill, then children are asked questions about the puppet's behaviors, and finally children role play a similar problem situation to practice that skill. The program consists of 6 main components: pinpointing the problem, perspective taking and empathy, generating alternative solutions, predicting outcomes of potential solutions, selecting the best alternative solutions, and implementing the best solution. The program also teaches cue sensitivity to verbal, nonverbal, and environmental signals. By learning these skills, children are better prepared to negotiate complex social situations.
Vaughn, S. R. & Ridley, C. A. (1984). Interpersonal problem-solving skills training with aggressive young children. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 5, 213-223.
Evaluated Population: 25 aggressive preschool children (Mean age = 5.25 years) from two community pre-schools that were located in a middle-class area in the southwest. Children were identified as "aggressive" by their scores on the Hahnemann Pre-School Behavior Rating Scale (HPSB) scale according to teachers' ratings on their behaviors. The study included 19 boys and 6 girls.
Approach: Children were randomly assigned to the interpersonal skills training condition or the control condition. Both experimental and control group children were then removed from their classroom 5 days a week for 20 minutes per session. The sessions lasted for 10 weeks yielding a total of 50 sessions and were conducted by a trained leader. During experimental sessions, children watched a skit with puppets modeling social situations. To talk about and practice the skill that was demonstrated in the puppet show, a short discussion was followed by student role play of a social situation. During control sessions, puppets were used to tell a story, and children were encouraged to interact with the puppets, the training leader, and their peers, but none of the interpersonal problem-solving lessons taught to the control group were used. A trained graduate student administered the Behavioral Interpersonal Problem Solving Test (BIPS) to all children at pre-test, post-test, and at the 3 month follow-up.
Results: Children in the skills training program generated more solutions to interpersonal problems than children in control groups. At post-test, children in the skills training program were less likely to engage in "irrelevant talk," meaning they were likely to respond to the problem-solving task with appropriate responses, requests for more information about the problem, or requests for additional time to think about the problem. Additionally, the skills training children gave 150% more cooperative responses and 300% more persuasive responses when solving a problem than the control group at post-test. At the 3-month follow-up assessment, children in the experimental skills training condition were still able to generate significantly more solutions to social problems when compared with control groups. There were no significant effects for gender. A limitation of this study is the very small sample size.
Ridley, C. A. & Vaughn, S. R. (1982). Interpersonal problem solving: An intervention program for preschool children. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 3, 177-190.
Vaughn, S. R. & Ridley, C. A. (1984). Interpersonal problem-solving skills training with aggressive young children. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 5, 213-223.
Program categorized in this guide according to the following:
Evaluated participant ages: 3-5 years / Program age ranges in the Guide: early childhood
Program components: child care/early childhood education; school-based
Measured outcomes: social and emotional health and development; life skills
Program information last updated 2/20/07
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