Increasing and Maintaining Withdrawn Preschoolers' Peer Interactions: Effects of Double Prompting and Booster Session Procedures

Abstract

The combined effects of double-prompting and booster session procedures on the social behavior of four socially withdrawn preschool children were investigated. A multiple baseline design across subjects was employed to evaluate these procedures. Double-prompting and contingent social praise involved having the classroom teacher prompt and praise the initiations and responses of the subjects and their peers to one another. The behaviors that were prompted — play organizers, shares, and assists — had previously been shown to be effective in setting the occasion for a positive response from peers. When maintenance of increased target initiations was not forthcoming, booster sessions were used to maintain subject initiations during follow-up. The results indicated that (a) the intervention procedures increased the subjects' play organizer, share, and assist initiations, (b) subjects' and peers' responses to one another's initiations did not have to be prompted, (c) there were collateral increases in nontargeted social initiations of the subjects, (d) there were smaller increases in the initiations of peers, (e) booster sessions functioned to increase initiations temporarily and (f) subjects' extended interactions with peers increased during intervention and remained high regardless of whether or not booster sessions were applied during follow-up.