Abstract
Student social skill improvement interventions are primarily conducted at the school site. Students also need social skills to navigate out-of-school time, and more focus on the elementary level is advised. Successful interventions are developmentally appropriate for the age group and focus on skill building. In this study, puppetry was the developmentally appropriate strategy used to teach a social skills-building curriculum. Trained volunteers presented four short, weekly lessons on positive social skill development to elementary students attending their district’s afterschool program. Pre-post intervention, student social skill knowledge scores significantly improved, and afterschool teachers reported significant decreases in student emotional problems and hyperactivity scores as well as a significant increase in pro-social behavior scores. Interestingly, conduct problem scores improved but not significantly, and peer problem scores significantly increased. Afterschool programming may be a promising initial or bridging step towards fully integrating school-based elementary-level social skill improvement interventions into community-based settings and organizations.
Recommended Citation
Kleitz, Elizabeth A.; Sunar, Namuna; Rhodes, Darson; and Cox, Carol
(2025)
"A brief social skills intervention and its effect on elementary students’ social behaviors,"
Undergraduate Research (Journal): Vol. 4:
Iss.
2, Article 4.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.58361/2766-3590.1078
Available at:
https://kb.gcsu.edu/undergraduateresearch/vol4/iss2/4
