| dc.description.abstract | This study explored the effects of a social skills curriculum on middle school adolescents
with cognitive disabilities, including the maintenance of skills over a 7 week period. Utilization
of an ABA (i.e. baseline, intervention, and baseline), repeated, single subject design was used
across a classroom group of eight students, five males and three females.
The researcher introduced three social skills with the intention of increasing the desired
behaviors as well as allowing for opportunities for the maintenance of desired behaviors through
the use of a variety of classroom and community settings. Social stories and case programming
were utilized to teach and review each targeted behavior. A reward system was implemented to
encourage positive change in each of the three behaviors.
Maintenance of the targeted skills: personal space, appropriately interrupting, and
appropriate greetings were evaluated. The results of this study were gathered through frequency
recording and recorded in graph and discussion form which indicate this social skills curriculum
is an effective strategy to teach desired behaviors. The results will be used to add to an area of
social skills research which continues to need attention to enable individuals with disabilities to
function to their fullest potential. | en_US |
