Preschool Life Skills Training Using the Response to Intervention Model with Preschoolers with Developmental Disabilities

Abstract

Previous research has examined a variety of methods for teaching young children important social skills in preschool to increase prosocial behavior and reduce classroom behavior problems. Preschool life skills (PLS) programming has taught young children to request teacher assistance, tolerate delays or denial in the delivery of materials, friendship skills, and functional communication skills. The purpose of the current study was to extend the PLS literature by assessing the intrusiveness of instruction necessary to teach children with developmental disabilities to response to their name, request attention and assistance, and tolerant delays and denial. A multiple-baseline across-behaviors design was used to demonstrate the effects of instruction, differential reinforcement, and error-correction procedures that systematically increased in intrusiveness as necessary for participants to acquire skills. Five participants acquired skills using general instructional strategies, and three participants required individualized instruction to learn skills. The training required varied across participants and skills. Pre-baseline and post-mastery probes were conducted in the classroom with adults and peers to test for generalization. In general, poor generalization of the acquired skills with peers and adults was observed.