Overview
Hello class! Increasing social skills is a very important part of a behavior analyst’s job that works with children on the spectrum. Learning social skills will allow the child to enhance their communication and relationships, promote their further independence, and improve emotional regulation as well as, overall quality of life! When choosing an intervention to increase social interaction, it’s important to consider motivation and reinforcement, practicality, and developmental appropriateness (Darling et. al., 2021). Modeling/Imitation, shaping, and chaining are potential interventions that could increase social interaction.
Imitation/Modeling
Imitation is a common intervention in behavior analysis that can teach many skills. This is when a person does the same thing they observe the instructor do immediately after seeing it. Modeling is slightly different and involves engaging in a behavior for another individual to see and copy (Cooper et al., 2020). This helps the person learn by watching others. The hope is the learner will imitate new behaviors from seeing it done by others. As far as the scenario goes, imitation can be a great intervention to enhance social communication such as play, joint attention, and reciprocity (Ingersoll, 2012). In fact, according to the study in Ingersoll (2012), when object and gesture imitation was used in combination with modeling and reinforcement to encourage correct imitation, it enhanced broader social functioning. With that being said, the child in our scenario would be a good candidate for this intervention because she has the cognitive skills to engage in this intervention. It is also practical due to the natural setting opportunities this intervention provides. However, motivation would need to be assessed and proper reinforcement put in place.
Shaping
Shaping is used all throughout behavior analysis to teach new behaviors and skills in smaller steps. Shaping is when successive approximations of a target behavior are reinforced (Cooper et al., 2020). The goal is to make gradual progress towards the desired behavior. For social skills training, this intervention can work as well. With the intervention’s allowance for gradual skill building, it can limit frustration due to the reinforcement of the child’s approximation. As an RBT, I have seen social skills training with shaping. It can be natural such as encouraging the child to reciprocate a greeting or contriving play requests or conversations and reinforcing that. Based on the child’s developmental level in non social contexts, the child could respond really well to this because they have the understanding that each appropriate approximation will be reinforced. Shaping is a practical intervention for most environments. However, it should be noted that progress may be slow.
Forward or Backward Chaining
Chaining helps teach behaviors in a sequence and each step sets up the next step. This is described as a behavior chain (Cooper et al. 2020). With forward changing, the first step is taught first. With backward training, the last step is taught first. According to Edwards et. al. (2018), backward training in particular helped increase independent engagement in social situations, reduced prompt dependency, and increased generalization. This intervention could help the child in the scenario. This type of intervention within the context of social skills training would be best implemented in multi step social interactions due to the nature of the intervention. For example, social skills groups or playing a game with a peer. The predictability of the steps promotes pattern recognition to help the child understand social routines. Because of the intellect of the child in the scenario, this intervention could be beneficial. However, the practicality of this intervention is debatable. Chaining is not as flexible as other interventions making it difficult to use for spontaneous social interactions.
References
Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2020). Applied behavior analysis (3rd ed.). Pearson.
Darling, S. J., Goods, M., Ryan, N. P., Chisholm, A. K., Haebich, K., & Payne, J. M. (2021). Behavioral intervention for social challenges in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Pediatrics, 175(12), e213982. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2021.3982
Edwards, C. K., Landa, R. K., Frampton, S. E., & Shillingsburg, M. A. (2018). Increasing functional leisure engagement for children with autism using backward chaining. Behavior Modification, 42(1), 9–33. https://doi.org/10.1177/0145445517699589
Ingersoll, B. (2012). Brief report: Effect of a focused imitation intervention on social functioning in children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42(8), 1768–1773. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-011-1423-6